The Tie That Binds
by regertz
Summary: -A restored Buffy Rebecca has a leetle mother-in-law trouble... -Willow is threatened with death and vampire transformation... -Spike, however, is one happy fella...
1. Chapter 1

The Tie That Binds...

Theme "Mum-in-Law from Hell" (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly")

Introduction...

For those who missed Sunnydalopolis 1-XXVIII and In for a Penny... I-XXIII...

Spike has met, loved, been redeemed by, and lost the love of his life...and unlife, a robotic copy of Buffy...Buffy Rebecca, created by Warren the cybergenius with an artificial human brain as a perfect copy of Buffy Summers...

With the slight twist that she was the potential Buffy capable of giving Spike aka Dr. William Walthrop "cybergenius" the chance to prove himself...

Which he did by his growing love for her and his willingness to accept her sacrificing herself in the final battle with the Goddess of Glory and Victory...Despite his terror of losing her...

But she was not lost forever...He felt it and planned to search for her soul forever...While doing his best to maintain his newwon humanity and protect his human "sisters-in-law" the Summers' girls...

His services were called on quickly...Darla sought revenge on the Slayer and thanks to Drusilla's ESP detected the presence of the feckless, long-delayed Hank Summers in LA...At last on his way to meet Buffy and Dawn...And "help" them unload their "unnecessary" home...

At the same time, Spike turned to Willow for help in reaching Buffy Rebecca's spirit...Which they did...Fortunately the same night Hank and his "West Coast girl" (Darla in disguise, her vampire nature masked by a magic pendant, courtesy Wolfram-Hart) paid a visit on Dawn and Buffy...

Trapped by Darla and vampire Hank, Buffy could not kill her own father when his soul briefly made an attempt to save her...As Darla had hoped it would...

Buffy was killed and transformed...Dawn survived...Barely...Due to the power of her Key life-force...

Despite the disaster Buffy had an ally...The spirit of Buffy Rebecca called that night by Spike and Willow, who helped her contain the vampire demon within and kept her soul in the fight to hold on to her body...But it was not enough and Buffy, already having killed once, weakened

steadily...Slipping into the darkness...While Dawn faced death and transformation...

But neither her robot sister or her "brother-in-law" or her friends were willing to give up...Not as long as there was the Wolfram-Hart resurrection ceremony which had revived Darla as human...And not as long as they had a doctor friend who made house calls, Glory's counterpart god, Ben...

While Benedictus, powerless God of Healing and Mercy, struggled to save Dawn from death and transformation with the aid of Warren's synthetic blood...Willow helped to contain Buffy's demon and they brought her to LA...Where Cordelia and Wesley helped them in the fight against

Darla and Drusilla...Angel being on a quest for knowledge in Tibet...

A reluctant Willow assisted Spike in putting Lilah Morgan, star of Wolfram-Hart, in thrall, and with her now eager help, they retrieved the resurrection ceremony...And flattened W-H, Inc...at least temporarily.. by having Lilah dispense her knowledge of the firm's activities to the proper

authorities...

Buffy was restored by the resurrection ceremony...A sad and shattered Buffy despite her relief at rejoining family and friends...Spike had accepted that this would mean the loss of his contact with his beloved BR...To whom Buffy had offered her body, feeling her sister had more to live for...A offer which had been declined...

But Buffy was desperate to do something for BR and Spike...So with Willow's help she merged BR's memories with her own just before the resurrection when BR's soul left her...

So that Warren, now a dear friend of the gang, who had assisted them in the current fight by reactivating BR's body, the Greatest Slayer of All Time, using April's reprogrammed brain as a stop-gap...could make a new neural recording of her brain...And with luck, separate Buffy Rebecca's memories from her own...And

Now you're up to speed...

Part I...

Spike found little to do...Thanks to Buffy Rebecca's enhanced abilities the past month had been a disaster for Sunnydale's vampires...

So much so that a large number had joined in offering a peace proposal, cemented by the offering of Drusilla to the Slayer just before Darla had killed and transformed Buffy...

And, as they had not known that Buffy had nearly lost her fight for survival...They were still striving to prove themselves to the Slayer...And her minions...

Giles had received notice through the vampire network that those who accepted peace would feed solely on animals and purchased blood, and would identify themselves to the Slayer by a special emblem...

Neither he nor Spike believed the killer demon could be suppressed in them for long but if their fear of the Slayer was performing the function of a chip...And since Buffy was likely to be out of action for a couple of weeks...Why not try it?...

Warren had even offered to place more of his blood synthesizers, developed as a component of Buffy Rebecca for Spike's "special nutritional needs" at their disposal...

Anything to promote the cause of peace...

But it left Spike with little to do in his temporary role as Slayer on Patrol...

However, as always...Harris was available as a source of amusement...

And, since Willow had been occupied and unable to attend tonight's rounds...There was no reason not to have a little fun...

With a dear old friend...

Buffy had had a rough night...

Three hours of neural recording under the care of Warren and Tara...Accompanied by some terrifying dreams...

But all in the cause of restoring her robotic sister...Buffy Rebecca...

Whose memories had been merged with Buffy's during the resurrection ceremony that had saved the human sister...

Courtesy of a certain red-haired wiccan...

Who was at hand...And anxiously awaiting the final result...

As was Dawn...waiting anxiously at home...

And Giles...likewise waiting...at his apartment...

Not to mention Cordelia and Wesley back in LA...Who had met the spirit of Buffy Rebecca while she shared consciousness with Buffy during the fight for Buffy's soul against Darla and Wolfram-Hart...And planned to head out the moment there was news...

Not that Buffy's own resurrection had not been received as a true miracle...But...

They were all...long, long overdue for a little extra happiness...

And all wished to see a certain blond reformed vampire and assistant "cybergenius" receive the greatest surprise of his existence...

"Quick..." Spike hissed at Xander and Anya, his assistants for the evening... "There's something coming...Over there..."

He pointed in the vague direction of the decrepit McGarvey cemetery...One of the last places remaining in Sunnydale where vampires might still feel somewhat secure...

He put just the right edge of concern and tension in his voice...

"Down.." he waved them flat...Into the muck of a soaked dirt road...

"Ok..up..." they rose, somewhat the worse for wear...

The fearless vampire vampire-hunter and his minions advanced toward whatever lay in the dark ahead...

"Down, quick...roll, toward those bushes..." he pointed to the side of the road...

Hmmn...Xander had not as yet seen anything "coming"...But...

If the temp Slayer on Duty tells you to drop and roll...

Buffy was nervous...and confided in Willow...

Buffy Rebecca's memories had of necessity been kept at the surface of her mind...And they were having a powerful effect on her...

After all, Buffy Rebecca was Buffy...A perfect neural copy...And her additional memories were what Buffy might well have experienced...Had she for some reason been forced to spend three weeks living with Spike in his crypt...

Spike, aka "Dr." William Walthrop, British "cybergenius", his cover story since his partnership with Warren...had been a surprisingly devoted and gentle companion...

Buffy Rebecca had felt his loneliness...And desperation...And recognized that a human soul was still there...lost in the mix of demon and man that was William the Bloody...

Just as Buffy had...If less consciously, she now realized...

The love that had developed between BR and Walthrop had been a gradual and beautiful process... Including Spike's moment of redemption when BR risked her existence to save her human sisters...And, trusted by her, he had come through, despite his terror of losing her...

Expressed to date...by a simple hand squeeze and a single "I love you"...

Capped by his faith that, if he retained his rewon humanity, he would find Buffy Rebecca again...If it took all eternity...

And for a lonely, vulnerable Buffy these were hard memories to carry...

Willow was sympathetic...As always...

"Buffy..." she said... "This is only natural...Heck, I'm half in love with the guy myself after all he did to save you..."

Tara was fortunately not in earshot...

"Willow...These memories...these feelings...They're not mine...But..."

"Warren says these memories will fade...Now that the recording has been made..." Willow tried to reassure...

Buffy smiled faintly at her...

"I'm not so sure I want to lose them at that..."

'Dad' Warren, father of Buffy Rebecca and her artificial human brain, friend and partner of the distinguished "Dr. Walthrop" decides it's show time...

"We're ready as we'll ever be..." Warren nods to Buffy and Tara...

Tara thumbs up to Willow...Who was hopeful...After all...

If she could resurrect the human Buffy...

The new neural recording was perfect...

Now they just had to create the world's second artificial human brain...And see if the memories contained within would recall BR's spirit...

She'll have to go back in the glop tank to fully regenerate her biologic tissues, thought Warren...God, how Buffy Rebecca had hated that biotank...

By now, after several drops into the muddy road, accompanied by rolls into the bushes, Xander has become a leetle suspicious of Spike the temp Slayer's "sensing something out there"...

Anya is still uncertain...She prefers muddy road on the blouse to Xander's bloody gore on the blouse...

Xander didn't even have the pleasure of holding the news of the attempt to revive BR from Spike...

It wasn't that Willow and Buffy didn't trust him...or Anya...to keep the secret...Oh no...

It just...might have distracted them...from their life-threatening work...

Unfortunately...something was actually out there...

Spike practically stumbled over it...Just as Xander was reaching the limit of his gullibility...

Terrifying and hideous...Only one creature could have created such a horror and left it...No, Spike realized...Left it, deliberately...For them...

For him and Buffy in particular...A little calling card...A warning...

He motioned to Xander to come up...So that he could see and keep Anya away...

But Xander has had just about enough of Spike's games for one evening...And Anya is plowing through the muck at top speed...

So it was poor Anya who saw it after Spike...

And screamed in horror and sorrow...

At a vampire...less than a year old...

With a note tucked in its blanket...a Dickensian touch, sure to appeal to William Walthrop, fellow Brit and Dickens' lover...

"Dearest Buffy and William,

Please take care of my poor little baby..."

It only took a few minutes for Xander to determine by phone that an infant had disappeared and that its parents were dead...

Brutally murdered...and their baby gone...

Spike looked at Anya...And Xander...

Anya was desperate...

"Willow...Willow could resurrect it...Like Buffy?...Oh, please...Xander?..."

Spike stares at Xander...Who embraces Anya...

"You know there's only one way we can help it, honey...Its parents are gone, there's only a demon in there now..."

"Anya, I'm sure its soul will be born again...Once it's free of this thing..." Spike tells her...

She insisted on holding it until the last moment, even though it snarled and clawed at her...

They called Buffy...only Dawn at home...and casually asked that she remain in the house to man the phones...Oh, just a little more activity...Not even a return to normal...But...

Giles was at home...And promised to be on guard...Yes, he thought he could get hold of Buffy and the others...

To alert them that Dru was in the neighborhood...And aware of Spike's intention to free her human soul...

"She won't stay long..." Spike notes to Xander, as they returned to the Summers'..."She's not bitter...obsessed with revenge like Darla...She's all demon...And a vampire demonsimply wants survival...and the hunt...She's sensed that I mean to find her..."

"So...this was what?...A warning to back-off?..." Xander looks at Spike...

Harris' small brain sometimes works wonders...Spike thinks...

"She's warning us to let her go without any fuss..."

Spike strolled into the Summers' home...Where he was now a welcome guest...

Within limits...

Xander followed with Anya...still shaken...

They had decided not to mention Dru's little bundle of joy...It was enough that everyone knew she was in the vicinity...

"Sis...Nibs?" Spike called out, a trifle nervous...It's been a very bad week in a terrible month...And one never knows...

Buffy came out and smiled at him...In a dress no less...She looked much better...As did the grinning Niblett who trailed her...

"All's well on patrol?..." Buffy asks him...

"Sunnydale sleeps peacefully tonight, Slayer..." he grins back...

"Harris...however..." Xander glares at him...

She glares at him...Picking on Xander again...

"Spike...What did I say to you about picking on Xander?..."

What did she say?...Nothing...Of course he could guess what she would have said...

"Harris can take care of himself... And I didn't pick on him...Besides...You never gave specific orders as to his care and treatment..."

"You don't remember what I told you eight days ago?..." Buffy is glaring but he senses she's pulling his leg...The grinning Niblett is a dead giveaway...

"Eight days ago?...You never said anything to me about Harris eight days ago..."

"That night, William?..."

That night?...One night he would never forget...We were at the crypt that night for the seance...The night her dad came home...The night Buffy Summers died and transformed...And Buffy Rebecca spoke to me...

Wait...William?...She never calls me William...Well, except right after her resurrection...But Red was there...

Well, Buffy died eight days ago...A little confusion is understandable...Still, no need to make a big deal out of it...

"Buffy...You're a little mistaken..."

Dawn attempts a look of deep concern...Is her sister losing it?...Understandable under the circumstances...

Buffy looks concerned as well...

She frowns...I could have sworn...

"Are you sure?...I was sure when I spoke to you at the crypt...I remember distinctly telling you to lay off Xander..."

At the crypt?...Ah, Buffy Rebecca must have mentioned that to her when they were together...She's just confused?...

"Maybe Warren ought to look me over..." she looks at him...

"Yes, just the thing..." Spike agrees...Though...Perhaps a doctor, say good old Benedictus...

"Still, my diagnostic subroutine says I'm fine..."

"That's fine, but you should really..."

He remembers which Buffy had a "diagnostic subroutine"...

That's the dress she wore the night I took her to that restaurant...Spike suddenly realizes...Our first time out together...

As he collapsed in a faint he couldn't help thinking that it was nice of Buffy Rebecca to remember the dress...

But then she has a back-up, supplemental memory...

The sound of Spike's fall, plus BR's cry brought Buffy and Willow, followed by the rest...Tara, Warren, Giles, and a newly arrived Wesley and Cordelia...from their concealment...

Spike looking so dazed... even Xander couldn't bring himself to enjoy the picture of the vampire...falling in a perfect swan dive...onto the floor...

Buffy Rebecca was a little worried for him...She lifted his head and stroked his hair...Looking around frightened...She never meant to do this to him...She should have done it more gradually...

He really has to get that Cat-Scan Willow joked about...

A brain well over 100 could only be expected to take so many shocks...

But she couldn't help noticing that Buffy had rushed to him, grabbed his hand, and was patting it with deep concern..

And perhaps something else...Which Willow noticed as well...

Uh-oh...

While Spike gradually came to, BR suggested she, Dawn, and Buffy step outside for a bit...to give him a chance to absorb the new situation...

And so the sisters could finally have a moment to themselves...

The sisters went out and the two Buffies sat on the grass...With exactly the same motion, Dawn noted...

She was especially glad to have them together...Being artificial herself...at least...in creation...it was nice to see Buffy welcoming BR as a sister...a twin...

Which she always had been...

"Rebby?..." Dawn offers, trying it out...Nah...

BR had suggested it was hopeless for them to both use Buffy as a short name...

By unconscious mutual agreement..."Becky" was not even considered...

"I'll stick with Buffy Rebecca for now..." she smiles at Dawn...

Warren comes out...A little reluctant...Not wanting to disturb...

"Hey, 'Dad'..." BR calls to him...

"Buffy Rebecca...I hate to tell you this...But you'll be needing the biotank again...for a few days..."

She grimaces...Back to the glop tank...

Buffy has an inspired idea...Spike's new place is nowhere to drag the tank...And no way is BR spending her first nights back sleeping in a crypt...

There won't even have to be a polite argument over who refuses to take her bed...

They were called back inside...

To an anxious William Walthrop...still uncertain that this could be true...

And terrified that somehow, someway...This could still slip from him...

But just as he had known instinctively...He'd found her...And as he'd known...

And all of them deserved...

Oh, the joy...

After a bit, without discussing it, they asked the gang to spare them for a few minutes and went alone to the Greenwood crypt...

Buffy Rebecca feeling over every brick...Every part...In wonder...

Spike still dazed...Following her every move...

She climbs down to the lower section...Her private room...

"I kept some of your things...Buffy took the rest..." Spike calls to her as she stares at the walls...

Buffy took them...Yes, she told me...when I was with her...So we're forgiven, Spike and I...

And Buffy, Dawn, and I...sisters at last...

"I'm glad, William..." she pauses... "Of course I'll want some of them back..."

She climbs up and faces him...

He's still shaken by all that's happened...In one month...one little month...

"Well, Buffy Rebecca..."

He's still so anxious to get this right, she thinks...My sweet Will...reformed vampire...Victorian gentleman...

I never thought Spike would need encouragement...

Well, we have waited long enough...

And this is the right place...Our first home...

She embraces him and pulls him down to his old slab...

Spike and Buffy Rebecca love theme

Spike realizes the tears are streaming down his face...And Buffy Rebecca's tears are falling on his...

"Let Buffy kiss all the tears away..." she says gently, kissing his face...

A century of sorrow...kissed away in a moment...

The Tie That Binds...Part II...

On their way back, Buffy Rebecca requested that Spike...speak with Buffy...When an opportunity allows...

She gave him the full Buffy stare...Wide-eyed, open-hearted...Totally trusting and completely loving...

She had absolute faith in her human sister...And in her beloved William...

But...

After three disasterous relationships in as many years...Angel, slimy Parker, Riley...

She wasn't about to let anything jeopardize the one that might be permanent...

Buffy Rebecca Summers...already Summers-Walthrop unofficially...No fool, she...

Willow was worried...

Buffy was still showing entirely too much interest for comfort in a certain blond and spoken for vampire and "cybergenius"...The memories she had received from her robotic sister had had a powerful effect on her...Especially given the past month of sorrow and horror...

And as happy as she was to have her "twin" back...joyous as it was that Buffy Rebecca and Spike were reunited...And sincere as her desire for their happiness was...

Willow could see...The "potential" for "trouble"...

Buffy needed distraction...

"Ok...everyone's here, do it..." BR looks at Spike...

They are back from the crypt...And whatever they were doing there... Which Willow and Xander especially prefer not to think about...Which Buffy has guessed...She is Buffy Rebecca after all...

Not that it would have been difficult to guess...

Do...what?...he wonders...Looking at the group standing around...The gang, Dawn, Buffy...

"You asked me once before..." she smiles at him... "I even said yes then...Well, actually I said.."This is all so sudden'..." She eye-bats at him...

He gulps...Oh...

Willow now fidgets a little, embarassed...Oh...yeah...Does she have to remember that time in particular?...It was just a little mistake...Her will spell gone wrong...

"Well, if you'd prefer..." Buffy Rebecca gets down on one knee...

He nervously tries to raise her up...No self-respecting 19th century Brit lets his girl propose...

Well, actually...in reality...And contrary to what some social histories of the era would claim...

But "Dr. Walthrop" prefers the old-fashioned way...And with a little nervous persuading gets her permission to proceed...

Which pleases the Niblett no end...

Spike discussed his "Mother" problem with the gang and the Buffies...

"It's best to let Dru have her head start...She just wants to survive...If we leave her for a few days...she'll be on her way to Europe...And you fellows will be that much safer when we take up after her..."

Which left time for a wedding...

After considerable struggle, the gentlemen of the group had manuevered BR's biotank into the Summers' storage room...

BR could have done it easily alone...But why deprive the boys of their chance to show off?...

The Summers women were at last alone...Hanging in their living room...

"Child Psychologist?..." Buffy grinned at BR... The career choice BR'd left in her journal, given to Buffy by Spike after her death...

"I thought it would be useful...In understanding Spike..." BR grinned back...God, it was nice to be home...

I mean the crypt was a dear little place but...

She has a question for Buffy...

"Did you ask Giles yet?... Has he checked with the Council?..."

Buffy nods...

Giles?...Council?...Dawn wonders...

Are they going to start speaking in some kind of crazy twinspeak now?...

"We're thinking there may be another Slayer coming..." Buffy explains, seeing Dawn's frustrated look...

Another one?...Oh, right...Buffy died...again...

"But Giles had no word from the Council as yet..." Buffy tells them...

Not another Faith...Dawn thinks...

Still Kendra was nice...Hey, wait...

"Maybe it'll be me..." she says happily...After all, Slayer's sister...Key...I should be a Prime Candidate...she thinks...

"Doubt it, Dawn..." "Not likely, Dawn..." the Buffies are quick to say...

Like hell...they both think...Not if the members of the Council hope to see their next birthday...

The Tie That Binds...Part III

Willow discussed the "situation" with Xander...in private...

She had no doubt Buffy would do her utmost to repress her new feelings for the distinguished "Dr. Walthrop"...

And that BR would completely understand...

But...Buffy needed some distraction...

And the upcoming wedding...Wedding?...Xander gulped...He still had...Concerns...On that one...Would definitely not be that needed distraction...

Nor would Angel's promised presence be likely to do much except deepen Buffy's despair...

And with no immediate prospect of Riley's return...

Buffy needed someone "nice"...

If something was not done soon, Willow thought...

There was after all only one dependable man left in her life...

The one who always came through for her...

Who had known her longer than anyone but her father...

Giles...

Giles?...thought Xander...

Willow could picture it...And described it, to Xander's mounting horror...

Buffy...hanging around the Magic Shop...with cow's eyes for her dear Watcher...

Giles, pleased no end with Buffy's eagerness to train...To improve her research skills...To spend nearly every moment away from college, patrol, or Dawn with him...

Until he caught on...And suddenly discovered he had to make a brief trip to England...

A Council emergency only he could deal with...

From where, Willow had no doubt, he would inform them that the Council had insisted on a new Watcher for Buffy...And that he reluctantly had accepted their decision...

Yes, a distraction had to be found...

And not simply that caused by the preparations for the upcoming nuptials...

Nor the usual fight against evil...

Xander was still trying to get his mind past the image of Buffy pursuing Giles...

Willow continued with her idea...

Fortunately...there was one alternative on hand...

A certain young "cybergenius"...currently still minus his fiancee...

A bit nerdy...But...

Recently proven in battle...To be all in all a first-rate fellow...

And bearing the sterling recommendation of his "daughter" Buffy Rebecca...

And, for once, someone with enough income to take Buffy out to a few decent places...

Warren...

Warren?...thought Xander...

"Of course, Xander...I would say you...But..." Willow smiles at him...

"Warren...definitely Warren..." calls Anya from where she had been listening...

Dawn remained fascinated with BR's biotank...Although she had seen it in operation at the

Greenwood crypt...

Buffy had memories of it, courtesy of BR...Ugh...

But it at least had kept Spike polite...Until William Walthrop came triumphantly to the surface...

At that Buffy wouldn't have minded "regenerating" some of her tissues...

Both Buffies were exhausted...

After all, both fresh back from the dead...

The next day they all met at The Magic Shop...

Willow had the Walthrops' first gift ready in advance...With help from Wesley and his contacts in LA...

And to help with the wedding plans, it was given early...

Spike, brought in under heavy swathing, was dumbfounded...He'd mentioned it once to Willow after BR's death...As a useful thing to have... Someday...Something to aid him in his role as "Protective Brother-in-Law"...

She and Wesley must have gone crazy searching for it...

And Red was giving it to him at just the perfect moment...

Buffy Rebecca smiled...A little frozen smile...

Oh, she was just delighted with the gift...Delighted...So deliriously happy...

A crystal...Mounted as a ring...To allow Spike to go out in the daylight...Just in time to allow a daylight wedding...

Nightmare scenario...

Dr. William Walthrop, reclaimed semi-human and "cybergenius", strolls happily out of his and Buffy Rebecca's honeymoon hotel for his first quiet walk in a garden in daylight in over a century...

An English country garden, no less...

Minus his dear wife...Sleeping in...Unaware of her spouse's early morn excursion...

A pile of slippery debris...Carelessly left behind...

The eminent "cybergenius" goes for a tumble...Oops...where did that new ring go?...

Roast Walthrop...on the grass...

Yes, Buffy Rebecca was delighted with the present...Which she planned to keep under her permanent lock and key...

Drusilla had fled...First from LA...After the disastrous fight with Buffy's friends...

Then from Sunnydale...After leaving a warning for Spike and Buffy...

To let things be...

Spike was quite right...Dru had no great interest in revenge...Although she would have dearly enjoyed slowly torturing the gang to death in front of a chained Buffy...Then Buffy, with her silly little boy watching, likewise chained...

However, fun must wait...survival came first...And Buffy and co had proved themselves a deadly enemy...

But she also knew...That now that Spike had seen her human soul in more than those briefest of flashes which he had experienced in their time together...

He would not rest until he had given that Drusilla the peace she deserved...

Even Europe would not be far enough to hide from him...

But it would provide a suitable battleground...

The Tie That Binds...Part IV

[Suggested theme..."Going to the Chapel"]

Angel, on his way home from his trek to Tibet and Nepal, was still trying to recover from the shock caused by the various news bulletins passed to him by Wesley...Most received in one lump...due to broken connections and lost mails...

Buffy dead?...Transformed?...Saved?...By Willow?...And Spike?...And by her robotic sister's spirit?...

Robotic sister?...Victorious over the Goddess of Glory and Victory as well?...

Spike redeemed?...By the same robot "sister"?...Who had just been brought back to life?...

And his old nemeses...Darla...and Wolfram-Hart...knocked flat?...

And all accomplished...

Without him?...

In a brief phone call he had passed on an assurance to Wesley that he would return asap...

Uh, yes...Certainly...Of course he'd be there for Buffy's robotic "sister's" wedding to Spike...

Wouldn't miss it for the world...

Obviously an evil force is at work, driving them all insane...

No doubt, Spike is involved...

But Angel is on his way...

After Buffy Rebecca secured Willow and Wesley's gift...away from Spike...the gang waited...for a prearranged peace meeting with the spokesperson of those Sunnydale vampires who had accepted the agreement...

While waiting, Xander was still troubled...

Not only by the image Willow had placed in his mind...A hapless Giles pursued by a lonesome, vulnerable Buffy desperate to repress the feelings for Spike she'd inherited from Buffy Rebecca...and perhaps which had simply been waiting to surface...

No, he could deal with that...

And not by the idea of using old Warren, Spike's fellow "cybergenius", creator of Buffy Rebecca, as a "stop-gap" nice guy to give Buffy a little distraction until the Walthrops were safely away in pursuit of Drusilla and Riley or some other alternative showed up...

He could deal with that as well...If he had to...But...

Spike...That was the trouble...

Spike...aka William Walthrop...aka "Dr." Walthrop, "cybergenius"...Soon to be husband of a perfect neural copy of Buffy...

To let Spike off like this...Xander could acknowledge his heroic efforts to save Buffy, his help in the fight with Glory...all that...

And the new feeling all of them felt toward him as a result...

That was all well and good... But...

He was still a vampire...Still held back only by the chip the Initiative had placed in his head...

Still a creature with murders on his hands...Hundreds...Perhaps thousands?...

Not to mention...Two Slayers...

Now...The object of affection for both Buffies...human as well as robotic?...

Quite soon to marry...a perfect copy of Xander's practically sister Buffy?...

He would have to speak up...Make his doubts known plainly and firmly...

At least to Willow...

Giles also had some reservations...but after all...

He had been willing to sacrifice Buffy Rebecca...even Dawn...To save Buffy...

And felt a little "morally compromised" here...

He had to admit that anyone could see both Buffies were now...close to Spike...

Besides, vampire redemption was possible...Buffy herself was living proof...

Spike had performed like a true hero...

Had proven ready to die for the Summers' girls...

And there was no doubting his love for Buffy Rebecca...

If anyone could redeem Spike and maintain that redemption...She could...

Sometimes one just had to trust in love, hope for the best...

And let in a little happiness for however long it might last...

[Suggested Leto's Theme (The Godfather)]

Leto, father of the Sunnydale vampire peace movement, arrived at the Magic Shop as he had promised...Wrapped into mummy form, escorted by two burly human "friends"...Who looked quite experienced in the use of weapons...Though currently disarmed in the interests of peace...

His former self, George Letos, Sunnydale politician and businessman, had had a lot of "friends" like these two...

And, vampire or not, he still knew where the bodies were buried...in a figurative sense as well as the literal one...

Therefore...he still had human "friends"...And Giles had only insisted on no additional vampires...

Buffy and Buffy Rebecca remembered him...the little waiter from Darla's "restaurant" who had spoken for the Sunnydale vampires when they offered the Slayer peace...and a trussed-up Drusilla...Too bad there'd been no time then to properly accept their gift...

He was looking quite prosperous now...And seemed to have reacquired some of his old politician's style...

He knew Willow...And to her horror she remembered him...

"You're Al Rosenberg's little grand-daughter, aren't you?...It's Georgie Letos, honey...remember?..."

Remember?...the nice man who always came to Grandpa's and bounced me on his knees?...Grandpa's old friend and crony?...

A vampire?...Well, a nicer vampire...A peace-seeking vampire...but...

"Mr. Letos?..." What do you say to a vampire who used to bounce you on his knees?...And called me Firehead... "How you doing?..."

"Can't complain, Firehead, can't complain...Say how's the family...How's old Al?..."

"Good...living far away now...very far away...But good...really good..."

"That's terrific...Tell him Georgie says hi..."

Um...Something nice...A little friendly concern, maybe...

"Umm...Sorry to hear about your...problem..." she smiles nervously at him...

"Ah, well, things happen...But it's good to see my little Firehead again..."

He turns to Buffy and is a little taken aback to see two Slayers, identical...

No wonder the past month has been a vampire's nightmare...

In Salt Lake City...

The gentle Englishwoman smiled gratefully at the flight attendant...She had mislaid her baggage tickets and had completely forgotten just how many bags she brought to the terminal...

She was so out of sorts she was ready to forget her own name...Thank heavens for id...

Dru's mind always worked best when motivated by fear...

And she had not completely forgotten Grandmother Darla's lessons...On passing for human when necessary...

After a dull drive across the desert in a "borrowed" car, Dru had decided to go home by plane...She would have preferred ship, a leisurely cruise...

But humans didn't cruise to Europe so much anymore...And in any case she needed time to prepare for Spike and she was certain, Buffy's, arrival...

A strange Buffy, who had carried two human souls during her brief vampire days...

Two Bad Ones...

A Buffy who had won out over her own demon...Defeated Grandmother Darla...

And whose powerful friends had made contact with her own Bad One, hidden for so long...

No, America was no longer a jolly place...

It was a simple matter to find a woman bound for New York on an evening flight... And would be equally easy to find one headed for England from there...

Willow wanted to go home...And pull the covers over her head...

Her Grampa's best friend...Her knee bouncer from childhood...A vampire peace negotiator...

Sometimes she really hated the Slayer business...Just hated it...

Tara was on the other side of the table, but sent a comforting look...

Leto continued his discussion with the Buffies and Giles...

He had accepted the story of them being twins...One trained in a distant locale...Now both on the scene and ready to Slay...

This would certainly settle the hash of any of his people who doubted in Slayer-Vampire peace negotiations...They were ready to crumble with one...Two?...Forget about it...

"We will see that those who follows the Slayer's instructions will be supplied with ample blood...At the designated locations..." Giles declared...

Thank goodness for Warren's blood synthesizers...

"Excellent, Mr. Giles...And we will do all we can to maintain the peace between us...You have my word on it..." Leto smiled...Teeth carefully hidden...

"And we'll call you on it, if necessary..." Buffy told him.

"Alas, some will not heed the call of reason...I fear..." he looked at her...

"We'll deal with them..." Buffy Rebecca told him...In the same voice and manner as Buffy...

"Just keep your friends in line..." Buffy finished...Both Buffies giving him the full Slayer stare...

An offer the Godfather of Sunnydale vampires cannot refuse...

Xander decided to let his feelings be known...to Willow and to the best alternative to Buffy Rebecca herself...Buffy...

They were continuing with Giles to discuss the "peace" situation in Sunnydale as well as what they could learn on Drusilla's movements... Except for Spike and Buffy Rebecca...

She wanted him to rest at his place for awhile...She was still worried about him...And she'd been consumed with curiosity to actually see his apartment...Buffy's memories of it had been sketchy...

Too bad she couldn't find that ring...He was anxious to try it out...But as long as he was still properly mummified...She was sure it would turn up later...

"Bye guys..." she waved, pushing the slow-moving vampire through the store...Good thing Giles had closed for today...

Xander turns to Buffy and Willow...At last a chance...

"Should we let Spike do this?..." Xander asks...

"He feels Drusilla's suffering..." Buffy begins...But he interrupts her...

"No, I mean...Spike-vampire, Buffy Rebecca-Slayer...ok robotic Slayer..."

"Meaning...what?..." Buffy looks at him...Somewhat coldly...

"Buf...Whatever you...all of us...feel for him now..." Xander starts...

"He's a monster...Right?..." she stares at him...Arrogant...little...human...

Buffy rages at Xander...

"What do you know about it?"

Anya jumps in her seat, startled...

Xander looks at Willow and Tara...Giles watches Buffy...

She pauses...

"Oh, that's right...You did kill people, didn't you 'jackal boy'?...How many was it now?...Don't think we ever asked?..."

Anya's hand on Xander becomes a vise grip...

He stares at her...

Buffy trembles...

"Now, me...I only have one kill to my credit..."

"Buffy, we love you..." Xander says quietly... "You haven't done anything to blame yourself for..."

Then he and Anya got up and left...for Spike's...

Anya had relearned enough about human behavior...And learned enough about Xander...Not to say much on the ride over...

Whatever blow Buffy had dealt him, he was still determined to settle this...If not with her, then with BR...

And the distinguished Dr. Walthrop...

And she had told Buffy Rebecca the night of the battle with Glory that Xander wasn't superhuman...

The Tie That Binds...Part V

Terror gripped Xander's heart...Buffy Rebecca...in Spike's new studio apartment...

Humming..."quite pleasantly" as Giles had once put it...Wearing a scarf around her head...

Scrubbing Spike's bathroom tile...

"We never stop, we Stepford wives..." she grinned at Xander and Anya...likewise horrified...

But she was a leetle embarrassed to be caught so unprepared for guests...

And just a little nervous about her absent "cybergenius" who she had reluctantly allowed to use his new daylight ring...to unload some trash...

After all...well over 100 years and only one real time out in the sun...Mostly spent fighting her...

And it was getting on toward sunset...

But she wished he was back...

Anya offered to check on him...

Which Buffy Rebecca could see was to give Xander a few minutes with her...

She had a fair idea of what he wanted to talk about...And was only surprised no one else had yet brought it up...

Anya headed out in search of Dr. Walthrop...It was not unlikely the distinguished "cybergenius" had gotten lost on the way to the dumpster...

Buffy Rebecca took Xander over to the balcony...

He looked at her...And told her of his concerns and Buffy's reaction...Much as he did not want to anger both Buffies, he had to get this off his chest...

"How can she think that way?" he asks her... "She is not a monster...I would never think that way..."

Buffy Rebecca was pensive...She had all of Buffy's memories of those days plus her own...but she had a "dad", a love...happiness in her life and could distance herself better...

"We've killed Xander...An innocent woman...Nothing can ever change that..."

"But that does not make you...her...like Spike..."

"Xander, I don't want to hurt you...But you realize I...she would have killed you all...Tortured you if possible..."

"You would not have been capable of that, Buf...Never..."

"Xander...When you were possessed and ready to kill Willow...Could you stop it?..."

"I didn't know what I was doing...Neither did you..." he was pacing...

"I knew what I was doing...I...we couldn't stop it...But we knew..."

He stopped...

"I believe you if you say that Spike couldn't control what he did...But how I can just accept that he's fine now...Let you go off with him..."

"Better me than Buffy...I can't be turned...I'm more or less immortal...And I can throw him much farther than she can..." she grinned at him...

It was inevitable she explained to him...Inevitable that Buffy would grow to care for Spike...

It was her nature to love...Hadn't the first slayer told her...Buffy that the day of her vision quest...The day she...Buffy Rebecca...Had been born out of the glop tank...

She...both...now knew they Slayed not from hate...but from love... To save, not to destroy those trapped in vampire bodies...

And no one knew better now the joy and relief that escape offered...

But she had more to give than even that...And desperately desired some chance to reach out to the lost souls...

She had always fallen for vampires with any humanity...Look at Angel...

And when Spike had shown in flashes that there was still a human soul trapped and suffering within...More lost than Angel...Throwing himself in her way...Running to her for salvation...

And showing more humanity with each encounter...

It was inevitable...As natural as breathing, Warren had once told Spike...

But it was dangerous...Too dangerous for the human Buffy...So...Somehow...Pity had been taken on William Walthrop...

And she was here...The one Buffy who could love William Walthrop safely...

But as for Spike's worthiness...his redemption...She was as firm as Buffy...If he could continue in his new life...No one had the right to judge...Besides...

"See, Xander...You think it's over...That he's free and has been given

happiness with a ticket to immortality in the bargain...But it's not...He and

we both know it's not...And he is willing to accept it...not just to be with me...

To have the chance to do what good he can while he can...Like saving poor

Dru...Protecting Buffy and Dawn..."

Buffy Rebecca looked quietly at him...

"And, one day...tomorrow...a hundred years from now...ten thousand...the chip will fail or some enemy...maybe Dru...maybe another...will succeed...somehow...his demon will be released again...And he won't be able to control it...No matter how hard he tries..."

"Any more than I...Buffy and I...could..."

She paused...

"When that happens...When nothing more can be done..."

She looked down...

"I'll give him peace...And then it will be my turn...to wait for him... However long it takes..."

"And he knows this?..." Xander looked at her...

"Yeah..." She grinned at him... "Well, it sure beats waiting for a Slayer strong enough to stake him..."

They heard Anya and Spike from below...Spike full of his first moments in the sun...Anya a sympathetic and naturally, understanding audience...

Buffy Rebecca smiled at Xander...

"But today...Xander, let's be happy today...For as long as we can be..."

Back at the store, Buffy had tearfully explained her behavior to the others along similar lines...

After all...

Giles counseled her not to worry...Xander would understand...They all did...And he had faith in Buffy Rebecca's love for Spike...As he would have even if it were she, the human Buffy...

She nodded...As always her Watcher was there for her...Dear Giles, she would have to show him a little more of her affection and respect...Train harder, help him in his research...

These Englishmen...when you get right down to it...

Willow who had gotten over her initial anger over Xander, noticed the cow's eyes forming...

Uh-oh...

"How's Dawn doing back at school?..." she asked Buffy brightly...

Distraction, distraction...

Two communications reached the store just before they broke up...Willow and Tara to take Buffy to Spike's to hopefully catch Xander and Anya and...Willow hoped...Warren...

One, a telegram...from Angel...

"Giles...Am on my way...Meet me at your store...Try to keep things under control until I get there. Angel..."

"He seems a little worried...I wonder if Wesley reached him with all the news..." Giles hoped Angel would not be making any scenes about Spike just now...

"Wesley said he called and he told him about things including the wedding...But I'll explain the situation when he gets here..." Buffy smiled at them... "It'll be nice to have him back..."

He wants "things kept under control until He gets back..."? she wondered to herself...God, Spike is right...he is bloody stupid sometimes...she thought...

The other missive was a priority mail envelope...Addressed to Giles...

Which read...

"Hold the fort...I'm coming fast as I can..."

Signed, Basey Granger...

Basey Granger?...

"I believe she is the next Slayer, following on Buffy's...temporary death..." Giles noted...

Next Slayer?...thought Willow and Tara...It hadn't even occurred to them...

"Giles?...You have anything?..." Buffy asked

"Well, I only know that Ms. Granger was under observation...She did have a questionable report made on her by a former Observer...several years ago...But...That Observer being Ms. Post..."

The Ms. Post?...Faith's evil Watcher?...Hmmn, a black mark from her...

"The Council decided to review her case after she appealed Ms. Post's review...Since then Max Creave has been her Observer...A fine fellow Max...Had great faith in her abilities should she ever be called on...Especially after she overcame the vampire who had put her in thrall..."

In thrall?...Buffy wondered...She was in thrall to a vampire and they're bring her in as a Slayer?...

Well, Dracula and me...But I wasn't really in thrall...Not really...Whatever Riley and Giles thought...

"How long was she controlled by a vampire?...Willow asked...

"Apparently the better part of a year until Max met up with her and helped her escape and destroy the creature...But the Council had her throughly tested and pronounced her free...Ms. Post may had played a role in her being revealed to her captor..."

Giles is so on the ball...Buffy noted, pleased...You can always depend on my Giles...

She was starting to feel a little better...A little competition might be good for the soul right now...

"Hmmn...she's from...Craftville, Indiana...the Midwest..." Tara noted...

"Umm, Giles...This Max?...He will be her Watcher now, right?..." Buffy asked, just a little anxious...

"I'm afraid not...Max was killed in helping her defeat the vampire...But I'm sure I can help you both until her new Watcher is assigned..."

Oh...great...thought Buffy...

Phew...thought Willow...

The Tie That Binds...Part VI

Willow, Tara, and Buffy with a home-collected Dawn had caught up to Xander and Anya at Spike's...

Buffy had apologized profusely to Xander...

Who told her in private, on the balcony, that he now accepted the idea of the Walthrops as a permanent thing...And would trust Buffy Rebecca to keep Spike in line...

And hoped that she, Buffy would find her own fair share of happiness...In fact he planned to do what he could to make the upcoming celebrations happy...They all deserved it...

Which was good...As she and Willow had had a great idea...And hoped that he would help them to carry it out...

Bachelor party?...thought Xander...

The thought...flashed through his mind...of Giles, Wesley, Warren, Angel, himself, and Spike...the new Walthropian Spike...Whom Buffy Rebecca teasingly noted was showing an increasingly Victorian attitude...

Partying on down...Giles, Wesley...Warren...Angel...Spike...Xander...

Without the female members of the gang...

No...Oh, dear God...No...

But the ladies wanted a night out...

Willow and Buffy also informed them of the new Slayer's imminent arrival...

Dawn liked the name..."Basey Granger"...Definitely Midwestern...

Although she was disappointed to be dropped from the running...

Xander was intrigued to learn that Ms. Post had been her Observer for a time...Before she'd been assigned as Watcher to Faith... It did not surprise him that she was implicated in betraying her charge to a vampire...

"She couldn't have been more than 14 when Ms. Post left her

and she was captured by that one..." Buffy noted...

Imagine, a pre-Slayer enslaved to a vampire for nearly a year... Most of

her family murdered by him at the same time, according to Giles'

information...

Of course, a Midwestern vampire...but still...

"You'd better be careful before you go and after you come back..." Xander noted to Spike...

"She'll probably be out for vamp blood...Big time..."

Hmmn...thought Buffy Rebecca...I must have a talk with Ms. Granger first thing...

Willow was still enjoying the thought...We are here at William the Bloody's bachelor pad, helping Buffy and her robotic sister plan his wedding to the said robot sister...And having the nicest time we've all had in weeks...

If anyone had told me this a month ago...

'Dr.' Walthrop was conscientiously headed for his office...If he was to take a combination "business" trip and honeymoon to Europe with his new Missus...He'd better have some idea of what his company was manufacturing...

Besides Buffy Rebecca would be heading back with Dawn and Buffy for another night in her glop tank... After some planning...and dinner...A large one, please...

That still surprised Xander and Willow...she needs to eat?...

She grinned at their question...

"Needs to...Well, only to keep Spike's blood supply flowing...Loves to... Definitely..."

Buffy didn't need to be told that...And Dawn was not surprised...Why if Xander had ever seen the way Buffy chows at home...

And Walthrop would send Warren along to them...after a much needed consultation...

Which Willow was glad to hear...Tara also...She wanted to go over some possible courses she might take in cybernetics with him...

Hmmn...Willow thought...Yes, Operation Distraction should be commenced as soon as possible...

She would have been pleased to learn that the thought of Warren had in fact crossed Buffy's mind in a favorable way as well...

She had felt herself acting a wee bit foolish toward Giles today...And she was deeply embarrassed at losing it with Xander...over Spike...

She was lonely...And Warren was the ultimate in lonely guys...Building a robot girlfriend to keep him company...

But redeemed by his recent activities in Buffy's and Buffy Rebecca's resurrections unquestionably...And of course his fiancee...Who seemed to have left, with little hope of return...

Unfortunate but convenient...

Spike's good buddy...Who'd recognized the genuiness of his affection for Buffy Rebecca before anyone else...

Buffy Rebecca's dear second dad...

And he'd been true blue during their little escapade at Xortox Labs with the sinister Dr. Severn...When Buffy had posed as BR to learn what the nutty employer of Spike and Warren was up to...

Not that she expected anything serious to come of it...A new friendship at best...But it would be nice to have him around to fill out the set of couples...in the next few, likely to be hectic days...And she wouldn't mind making him feel welcome...appreciated...

If she could ever get him to stop calling her "Ms. Summers"...

Not exactly a dream catch...But she had had her fill for the moment of hunkily dark and brooding types...

A nice "stop-gap" guy...

The other problem with planes as opposed to ships Drusilla noted was the difficulty in obtaining a meal...On board ship, there was plenty of leisure time to stroll around...a vast ocean to dump unwanted corpses in...

Here she would either have to be very clever or make an immediate transformation...And it might be difficult to have a hungry newborn vampire killing its way around a plane in mid-air...

Drusilla dearly loved a massacre, but she was not a fool when it came to survival...

Still, her last meal in New York had left her feeling...unsatisfied... However, much as she disliked animals...there were dogs and cats in the cargo hold...And it offered the best chance of catching a wayward human and disposing of them out of sight...

She settled on a Great Dane...And sat down to a leisurely meal...During which her thoughts ran to her little boy...Her naughty little boy...Who was not content to hound his "mother" out of America but would soon be following her home...To destroy her...

And she sensed the tie binding him to Buffy strengthening...even as hers weakened...

Becoming...permanent?...Her silly little boy?...

And she wasn't even welcome at the upcoming wedding...

Well, she'd deal with him...And her new "daughter-in-law" as well...When the time came...

Kids...they sure keep you hopping...

The Tie That Binds...Part VII

After settling "Dr. Walthrop" in at the lab with enough review material to keep him busy all night, Warren dropped by Spike's to find the gang bustling with plans and news...

A new Slayer on the way...

All evidence pointing to Drusilla's being headed as far away as possible...

The peace agreement holding for now...

Buffy Rebecca positively glowing with happiness...With Dawn, Anya, and Tara scanning through wedding catalogues...For dress plans...

No enormous to do in the works...A simple ceremony...but definitely a wedding gown...

And definitely a party...

And planning her honeymoon in Europe...Which would combine a crusade against evil with pleasure and business...

A true Slayer's honeymoon...

Xander nervously trying to come up with the least disastrous potential venue for the "boys night out"...Which he had decided to expand to include Dr. Ben, Glory's brother, the immortal but powerless God of Mercy and Healing whose efforts had been instrumental in saving Dawn from death and transformation after Darla's little scheme had nearly destroyed her...

Buffy looking much happier herself...And with Willow was planning a wild time for the ladies...and traveling among the various planners to lend an ear or offer a suggestion...

Quite a pleasant commotion to come into...

Buffy Rebecca and Buffy greeted him warmly and urged him to come with them on their patrol before they headed home...

Along with Xander and Anya...Willow and Tara taking Dawn home...

They expected a peaceful night and he deserved to see the fruits of his labors with the blood synthesizers...

Leto had kept his word...Sunnydale was quite peaceful and the few vampires spotted made clear their peaceful intentions...

Warren noted the Buffies seemed a little uncertain with the success of the

peace process...Which Buffy explained to him when Buffy Rebecca made a fast extended circuit ahead of them...

After all, she was three times faster and more powerful...And had spoken with Willow about "Operation Distraction"...

"We can't help wondering...Is it right to let these creatures live as they

are?...Suppose we're just prolonging their suffering?..." Buffy said, looking

at him...

"Well, you did say Leto seemed more human when you saw him last...Maybe they are becoming more human as they hold off killing humans..."

"I hope so...It's hard to know what to do..."

"Well...Ms. Summers...I'm sure you'll make the right decision..." he smiled at her...

Nice eyes she thought...

And definitely a generous heart...To take on Spike as a permanent business

partner...

And for once, a guy with a documentable income...

"Warren, after all we've been through you really should call me Buffy..."

Angel arrived at the Magic Shop the next evening...Ready to face whatever evil had overwhelmed the gang...

To find Giles in fact a bit overwhelmed...

The bustle from the night before had transferred itself from Spike's to his

store...

The Buffies...Yes, there was indeed a second Buffy...were working on BR's wedding dress with Dawn in enthusiastic support...

Willow was doing what research she could on potential threats as well as Dru's movements but there was little to go on...She was happy to see Angel...Could he tell her anything about Dru's past history that Spike might not know?...Had his Tibet trip generated any prophetic information?...

Tara was helping both camps as well as discussing cybernetics with Warren...And Spike who was hoping to get in a few of the new terms he'd learned...Warren was pleased to make the famous Angel's acquaintance...As for Spike...

A Spike distinctly different from the one Angel had known...Friendly, rather tweedy, and clearly an essential fixture of the gang...But still a little of the old...Enough to be wry about his new status...And enjoy Angel's obvious shock at the turn of events...

No sign of evil afoot...In fact they were about as happy as he'd ever seen

them...Including Buffy...Who was enjoying the bustle as much as her sister...

Buffy and the new Buffy made him as welcome as they could...Buffy feeling a bit guilty about her heretical thought about him the other day...

After all, he'd come running to do battle for her...as always...

Even if the trip to Tibet in search of knowledge idea sounded bloody

stupid...And well, he might have been a leetle more efficient in disposing of Dru and Darla when he'd had the chance...

Still, that was unfair...And here he was...Her dear Angel...Her first vampire love...

Not exactly the relationship she needed right now...

He was astonished by Buffy Rebecca...A perfect match of his Buffy...And was slightly disturbed to see both Buffies obvious affection for "Dr. Walthrop"...

But everyone was glad to him...The Buffies made a point of taking him aside...

Brought him up to speed on all the latest, including the news that a new Slayer was on her way...

And showed great interest in his trip to Tibet...

Leto was likewise pleased with the fruits of his labors...The majority of

surviving Sunnydale vamps were happy to grab at anything that would provide relief from the Slayer's unrelenting, increasing pressure...

And none were surprised to hear that a second Buffy was in part responsible...

It figured...

Warren's artificial blood supply was a welcome boon...Definitely superior

to rats...And most were quite ready to admit, there was something to be said

for having your meals delivered without a long and tedious hunt...

And all the credit went to their new leader...

Yes, Leto had regained a measure of his old status...And old memories were surfacing...The pleasures of power, the joys of contact with his fellow men...

But with them came a measure of loneliness...He missed his old gang, his

family...No one...human that is...seemed around Sunnydale anymore...Except...

Except his little Firehead, Al's little grand-daughter...Dear Willow...

Not that he had ever thought of her in life as anything but a sweet little

kid...But now, with time on his side...He could see her in a different light...

She reminded him of his dear wife, so gentle and sweet and concerned for

him...In fact...He couldn't help thinking she would make an excellent

wife...for some lucky fellow...

And his vampire senses hinted that she had unusual abilities...just as he had no trouble confirming the power of both Buffies...

George Letos had not been an evil man in any sense of the word...But he never had had a chip installed...And his sire had been a "professional" in every vampiral sense of the word...Not a young, immature, psychotic like Dru... In addition he had been an older fellow when transformed, not a young romantic wearing his soul on his sleeve so to speak...

And he was, in vampire terms, still rather young...Without Spike's long period of suffering...

In short he was not a William Walthrop...And although he was determined to

maintain the new agreement with the Slayer, he felt his noble efforts in

peacemaking deserved...some reward...

Yet he could not risk violating the peace by transforming the Slayer's friend openly...In fact he could see a way to cement the Slayer's faith in him...

If poor Willow's transformation process were to be begun by another, some renegade?...And noble Leto, peacemaker, were to attempt to prevent such a terrible thing?...But sadly, fail?...

And later Willow were to succumb to the effects?...

Surely the Slayer's love for her friend would dissuade her from destroying the new Willow...And who better to be entrusted with her care then the noble Leto, old family friend, who had tried valiantly to save her?...Who would keep her secure and able to continue contact with her old friends...

Everybody wins...

Yes, thought Leto...Not too much to ask for one who'd done so much for the cause of peace...

The Tie That Binds...Part VIII

Spike got quite a kick out of inviting Angel to stay at his new digs...

Any former boyfriend of his "sister-in-law"...

Xander who had arrived late with Anya...after picking up good old Ben at

Sunnydale Hospital...rather enjoyed the scene himself...

Dawn was extremely pleased to see Ben...Who was glad to see his recent patient so well and happy...

And brought greetings from the Byzantines as well as Dreg...Who wished to pass on his profuse thanks to the Slayers for sparing his beloved goddess...

"How's Glory doing?..." asked Willow...

"I should have tried electro-shock therapy for her years ago..." Ben

grinned...

Buffy and naturally Buffy Rebecca couldn't help noticing that Dawn had

developed a serious crush on a certain young doctor and god...

Who fortunately would be around for the upcoming festivities...And equally fortunately they thought, would be leaving for Greece shortly afterward...To resume his duties at the Byzantines' monastery and hospital...And help his now powerless and amnesiac sister with her rehabilitation...

Rats...Dawn thought...Still Greece wasn't all that far away...And school trips abroad would be coming up next summer...

A yearly check-up by the physician who had handled her case might be a wise preventative step...

As the evening came to a close, Xander floated various party ideas to the

gentlemen...

Wesley and Cordelia would be able to come up in two days...With Angel now in to complete the guest list, festivities would therefore commence at that time...

The ladies had claimed the Bronze for their party turf...

So...how about...

"So...you're the Best Man..." Angel grinned at him...

Best Man?...Xander wondered...Spike's "Best Man"?...It hadn't even occurred to him...

Walthrop grinned at him...

"We wouldn't have it any other way..."

"I won't have to give you away?..." Angel grinned at Spike...He was beginning to enjoy this...

Seeing Buffy Rebecca so happy...Spike offering living proof that redemption could be achieved...

And especially if one Buffy would still be "unattached"...

Xander explained the "vampire family tree" to a confused Warren and Ben...

Later, after another quiet patrol Buffy and Buffy Rebecca decided to check in with Giles before heading home...

Who was by now at his apartment...Recovering from an exhausting if joyful evening...

They couldn't resist giving him a taste of their new and disconcerting twin

trick...

"Giles..." they called out...In stereo...

Giles...looking extremely sheepish...came to the door...

And, attached firmly to his head, a small boy...About five...

"Olivia's little boy?..." they asked...Still in stereo, but now

unconsciously...

Giles?...they nervously wondered...No...it couldn't be...They hadn't been

together that long...Then, again?...

He was close-mouthed about his past...

"No, no...This is Leroy...Leroy Granger...Ms. Granger's younger brother..." he detached the small boy from his head and set him down...

The new Slayer's little brother?...

"Ms. Granger's here?..." Buffy asked...

"BASEY!..." Leroy screamed at Giles's upper floor...Yes, it was reasonable to assume she was here...

"Umm...Yes, she came here first looking for me...She naturally thought it the best place to start..." Giles began...

"Hey!..." called a tall slender young woman from the top of the

stairs...Wearing Giles' bathrobe...

She was down in a second...And hugged the first Buffy in range, Buffy Rebecca fervently...While holding Buffy's hand...

"I knew you'd make it...I knew it...Those idiots on the Council couldn't

prophesize their way out of a paper bag..." she smiled at Giles...

"No offence, Rupert..."

Rupert?...the Buffies wondered...

"So...don't tell me...Ok, you'll have to tell me...Which one?..." she released

BR and looked at the two Buffies...

"Robot..." BR grinned...

"Human..." Buffy smiled...

"Well, I meant which one is the blushing bride..." she hugged BR again...

Then, asking for a moment with Buffy, she led her into Giles' den where she kissed the startled Buffy gently and held her hands, smiling...

"I guess we know what it's all about...don't we?..." she told her...And showed her the scar of the vampire's bite...

Home, sweet home...

Drusilla was on her home ground at last...Dear old England...London as bright and gay by night as ever...People looking prosperous...and fat...

She swept through long-forgotten streets and by-ways, hardly killing at all at first...So anxious was she to retrace the steps to old haunts and habitations...

But nostalgia aside, she had a purpose in familiarizing herself with the new London...Her boy, still bound to her by his own self-imposed obligation, would be coming...With his new wife, the Slayer...more powerful than ever...

She intended to be ready and waiting...With plenty of jolly surprises...

But...Willow's brief release of her Bad One had unnerved her...She intended to take precautions and above all, to have allies...

Therefore, for once...Dru was playing it safe and taking her time...Limiting

her kills to the absolutely necessary until she had made contacts...

Amazing the effect of fear on Dru's psychosis...Nearly as effective a treatment as Glory's electro-shock...

The Tie That Binds...Part IX

Basey told them the story...

Ms. Post had violated the Council's rules on Observation of a potential Slayer candidate and revealed herself to Basey when she was 14...Naturally with an ulterior motive...When Basey became suspicious of her interest in acquiring powerful items and sought to reach the Council on her own, Ms. Post had declared her unfit while secretly contacting the most powerful local vamp, one Sentenus, revealing Basey's identity...Who had been only too happy to have a potential Slayer in his grip...While she was still lacking the strength that came with the choice of Slayer, untrained, vulnerable...

He'd killed her parents and left her alive...in thrall and with her brother, though in the care of a grandparent, a potential hostage...Hoping to use her as a tool to learn more about the Council and the power they could access...

Max, Giles' old friend, had been sent to review her case after Ms. Post had been assigned elsewhere...Even then some were suspicious of her...

Wish they'd let us know...the Buffies thought...

He'd gradually realized she was under control and helped her free herself, and appeal for the Council's reinstatement...Which despite their misgivings over a potential Slayer who had prematurely learned of her possible destiny had allowed Max to Observe her...

But Sentinus had not been happy to lose his pet...And came after them... Killing Max even as she destroyed him...

Since then, learning that other Slayers had been chosen ahead of her, she'd waited, keeping in contact with the Council...And following the career of the Greatest Slayer of All Time...

Trust the Council to keep a line of Slayers in reserve...both Buffies thought...

Leto had found his "renegade"...One Theodore, an outspoken type, given to sneers at the "peaceniks" and vainglorious boasts of what he would do to the Slayer and her friends when he caught up with them...

It was quite easy to have comrades drop a few hints...The love the Slayer bore her dear and vulnerable friend...The gentle heart of that dear friend who would find it so difficult to harm even the most fiendish of vamps...Her routes to and from her dorm...And her daily schedule...

Information which Leto had acquired with the skill of a master of Sunnydale politics...

The same comrades were quite willing to offer to let Theodore know when the best time to strike would be...Encourage him in his hopes of winning glory against the Greatest Slayer of All Time...By taking her best friend...An act worthy of the great Angelis himself...

He had Theodore kept under careful watch...As well as Willow...

Now it was just a matter of timing and proper positioning...

With a little reluctance, Basey accepted Buffy's invitation to move in...until her plans were settled...Buffy Rebecca having deferred to her human sister...

After all, while neither sister had any intention of using their mother's room themselves...She'd have been the first to want to take the new Slayer in...

Neither sister liked the idea of the Grangers staying with Giles...Especially as Basey

seemed quite taken with their Watcher...

And discussed his merits all the way to the house...Such a charming accent...So gentle and yet distinguished...Just like her Max...

Giles was very popular with Slayers this week...

Normally, Drusilla did not care for thrall and hypnosis games...Oh, she was excellent at it and it served her well in certain kills...like Buffy's friend and replacement Slayer, Kendra...

But she did not go in for it for long-term actions...A little...well, creepy...Especially with female humans...

She'd always been pleased that neither Spike nor Angelis went in for that sort of thing...much...

Still she was alone now and the situation required that she have a safe home and 24/7 protection...So she bit the bullet and a couple of human females...Who lived in a building which catered to young single professional women...With rather quaint rules of conduct...Even for London...

Just the place for a shy young thing like Dru...

And it was rather nice to have attentive "friends" devoted to fulfilling her needs...

She would have to try this with the Slayer...At least for a jolly week or so...

If things worked out, she might even get her to properly punish her silly little boy...Permanently...

Maybe even send her back to America to carry Dru's greetings to her friends...

While a very pleased and mature Dawn took young Leroy on the grand tour of the Summers home...

The Buffies went over the peace agreement with their new partner...

She was pleasantly skeptical but no more so than they...And agreed it was worth a shot, if only for the breathing space it would allow them...

An "exhausted" Buffy Rebecca decided it was time for her glop tank...And retired...

"She gets tired?..." Basey asked Buffy...

"I get tired...so she gets tired...I can't explain it better than that..." Buffy smiled at her...

"I've got to talk to your Warren sometime...I'm kind of a tech-head myself..." Basey grinned...

Hmmn...My Warren...Buffy thought...I wonder how much cybernetics I could learn quick if I set my mind to it...

I may have some competition in fields other than Slaying...Still...

If Spike could become "Dr. Walthrop" in two weeks...

Warren and Xander were rather disappointed...They had ferried Angel and Spike to Spike's place after dropping Anya, Tara, and Willow...

They'd been half-expecting a rather interesting night...Hanging with the vamp boys...

But Angel was just in from a long flight home...And very glad not to have been called on to fight the forces of darkness in Sunnydale the first night back...At least not yet...

While Dr. Walthrop had homework to do...Family man here...

Both were quite content to head home and stay there...

Does not bode well for boys' party night thought Xander...Even the vamp members of the team are crushingly dull...As for the humans...

No, it did not bode well...

Maybe there was still time to beg the ladies to let them come along...

The Tie That Binds...Part X

One of Dru's new human minions had made contact with the London head of Wolfram-Hart, Europe...Sir Harold Milliken...aka Ernest Gruber-Schemm, long-sought Nazi war criminal, once a youthful star of Hitler's People's Court...

Having heard the full details of the massacre of the LA office's Special Projects Division by Darla and Dru...Sir Harold much preferred this sort of "contact" to the direct approach employed by Darla...

Although he had significantly benefitted from the clearing of American "deadwood" as a result of the Slayers' friends recent exploits ...Sir Harold realized the need to better support efforts against the Slayer and her friends in the future and was willing to offer Dru what assist he could...

In the morning Spike suggested they head over to Buffy's...Besides wanting to see the future Missus and co, he had decided it was time to fulfill his pledge to BR to "speak" to Buffy...

He had felt it was best to let her have a little time and see how she recovered from the after-effects of her recent traumas...

But with her showing increasingly high spirits, he deemed it the proper time...

Besides he had managed to persuade an extremely nervous BR to let him keep the daylight ring with the pledge that he would use it only in the presence of company...and the chance to drive to the Summers' in freedom while Angel...his roomie...was swathed in cloth wrappings beside him was simply to good to pass up...

Angel was reluctant to be mummified but it beat hanging around with Spike in a dark room all day...

Spike loaded the gift-wrapped Angel into his car...

"Granddad?...You ok in there?..." Spike called to the bandaged Angel...

I am going to kill Wesley first...Angel reflected...Then Spike...

Spike realized immediately that the young black woman answering Buffy's door was the awaited new Slayer whose arrival had not yet been passed on to the vamp boys...

Her little brother was fascinated by Angel, standing on the doorstep...A package of mammoth proportions...to be unwrapped as quickly as possible...

"William and...Angel?...I presume..." she asked...

Spike entered with a smile and headed for BR's tank...Angel found himself blocked by Willow's latest barrier...And in eminent danger of spontaneous combustion with Leroy picking at his bandages...

Ms. Granger regarded him with amusement...pulled off her brother, and called Buffy to the door...

"Buf...One of your undead in-laws needs some help..."

"He's a dear old thing..." Spike called back to her... "But mind you don't get Granddad started on his stories..."

No...thought Angel...Spike first...then Wesley...

BR begged through the tank for another hour's sleep...And would Spike please not bang on the tank like that...It wasn't made of wood, you know...Sound carries quite well...

However she allowed him a brief glimpse and kiss...

"You're thinking I look just like Drusilla in her coffin, aren't you?..." she glared at him before closing the lid again...

Well, Dru never wore teddy-bear pjs...

Buffy drew the curtains in the living room and got Angel unwrapped and settled...Leroy watched fascinated...

"If I shine a flashlight on you...Would you burn up?..." he asked pleasantly...

Angel sensed Basey was a little skittish around vampires...even friendly, soulful ones... And worked to put her at her ease...Buffy having been called away by Spike, he was equally anxious to have Basey stick around and prevent her brother from opening the window blinds...

In the other room, Buffy was a little nervous to see Spike using the ring...She didn't have any more faith in his caution with it than BR...

"Nibs at school?..." he asked, looking for a way to begin...How to tell Sis he loved her dearly...but...

In the past he'd dreamed frequently of being in a situation like this with the Slayer...But it usually involved her being in his thrall...Or at least at his mercy...

And implements of torture had generally been prominent...

She grinned at him...she knew what this was about...And if anyone had told her a month ago...

That Spike would be attempting to "let her down easy"...

"I love you, William...I can't help it..." she said frankly.. "But...I know this is for the best...Safest for both of us..."

She took his hand and patted it...

"And after all, we will be together...she is me...The me who could help you..."

He kissed her solemnly on the forehead and grinned back...The Slayer...His "sis"...His blonde nemesis, his salvation, and his redemption, looking into his eyes...

God bless the day I came to Sunnydale... And that little brat, that Annointed One...Who introduced us...May his soul be at peace...

"Of course..." she said, looking at him... "I wish Warren might have considered a Spike-bot for me before he shut down that part of the business..."

Wesley and Cordelia reached Sunnydale as promised the next day...After they had secured the office for the next few days...

Plus picked up the second ring made up from the same crystal used in Spike's...for the boss...

Who decided therefore to spare Wesley...for now...

It was now the decisive moment...Ready to do and die...

Time to party...

The ladies couldn't wait...and zipped off asap...

Xander had a vague idea of where they might go...

There was this "place" in town...

Spike and Angel knew the "place"...But Spike suggested a brief stop-off...

He was concerned for the Nibs...All by her lonesome in the house...Well, with the new Slayer's little brother... But that was hardly likely to be a fun evening for her...Seemed unfair...

Angel was in agreement... Nothing worse than being cooped up at home by oneself...He and his "grandson" ought to know...

Warren and Ben both thought it was a fine idea...Stop by and see Dawny for a mo, then...Out we go, the "wild" boys of Sunnydale...

Xander agreed...Just for a mo...Then let the wild times roll...

"Why don't we order out..." Angel suggested after they'd spent a happy hour with Dawn and Leroy...

The "wild" boys were in complete agreement...

Dawn wasn't all that surprised...Well, she had expected a little more from Spike...

Nor was Buffy all that surprised when she checked on Dawn from the Bronze...And got Ben..

It figured...

However, as to the female members of the team...

Buffy Rebecca was very carefully explaining to Basey that if Buffy could get pl-pl-plast...drunk, well...she could get such a way...

Buffy was in semi-Mom mode...but throughly enjoying herself...

Willow had already taken Cordelia to the stage and "borrowed" the players' equipment, courtesy of a very mild and harmless spell...And about a half-dozen "Bronze blasters"...

This one is for Oz, she had announced solemnly at the start of each of the three pieces they'd attempted to play...

It would have been, she had corrected each time, if she had not been gay...

Tara hoped Dawn was not too lonely...Buffy reassured her...

Basey noted that none of the guys present seemed to match the Slayers' band of fellers...

Buffy and her sis knew how to pick 'em...

Buffy and her increasingly plastered sis exchanged smiles...Xander, Giles, Angel...And good old Wesley...And Spike, well Walthrop at least, and even old Warren...And gentle Ben...

Yeah...

"It's a Shayer...ummn...Slayer's instinct..." Buffy Rebecca solemnly noted...

It was quite early...in the morning...when they left and Buffy decided to drop Willow and Tara at their dorm before taking Cordelia, BR, and Basey home ...

She didn't like the idea of them walking so far...As they were...

Even with the peace agreement's ongoing success...

She parked and she and the others walked them towards their dorm...

Theodore was waiting in the bushes with a couple of his pals...

They'd gotten info from a "reliable" source that the Slayer and friends were out for a party and likely to return quite late...and plastered...

Unknown to Theodore, his pals had alerted Leto who waited nearby as well...

Fortunately for Willow and Tara, Theodore did not see the others just heading back for their car...

Unfortunate for him and his pals...

One must give him credit... After his initial attack on Willow and Tara, he faced the combined forces of not less than three Slayers, with one, the Greatest Slayer of All Time, the easy equivalent of three...

Even their slight drunkenness did not diminish their prowess...much...

Leto barely had time to show himself to them...After helping Willow to her feet from the corner where she had been shoved by Theodore...

Apologizing profusely for the reprobate...He had learned of the fool's boasts and set out to ensure that the agreement was not violated.

He hoped the evening had not been spoiled for them...And felt the two staked fools had received their just desserts...

He vowed that the last one would be captured...Presented to the Slayer at the first opportunity...

And he was pleased to see that his gentle friend Willow and her friend were more or less unscathed...If somewhat shaken...

Buffy agreed that he'd laid it on a little thick...Still...

Basey insisted on examining Willow and Tara...Standard procedure by the Council...

Really?...Buffy thought...They might have mentioned it to me and Giles...

Newly implemented at her suggestion, Basey explained...After her year with Sentinus, she felt it was a wise precaution...

Really?...Buffy thought...The Council has never once asked me for a suggestion...

Buffy Rebecca, blushing bride, was still a leetle dizzy...

Both Will and Tara were bite-free...Though Willow especially was shaken...

"No, fine...It's ok...It's just nerves..." she grinned at them...

It was only later that night when Tara was asleep, that in the bathroom she carefully rolled up her pant leg and examined the scar Leto had left...In a large vein of her thigh...deep...She traced it almost lovingly...

They'd never think to look there...And with so little time to work...

He was much too smart for them...she thought...Her Leto...

But after all, it was her business if she chose to spend time with a dear old family friend...

But...she tried to shake away the confusion...she was afraid...This wasn't her...She should tell them...

But she knew she would not...

The shadow of evil had fallen over Willow...

The Tie That Binds...Part XI

Anya, who had been dropped first by Buffy and so missed the excitement, was out like a light by the time Xander reached their apartment...After a delightful evening at the Summers',

featuring a reading some of Walthrop's new poems, Giles' essay on Buffy's recent vision quest, Angel's Tibet stories, and an intense discussion of the nature of the soul which

naturally fascinated the reformed vampire members... during which Dawn and Leroy had begged to be allowed to go to bed...

Capped by an allnight marathon of Hammer vamp films on Channel 9...Which Warren especially found fascinating...

Yes, a great party...Xander never thought it would go off so well...

Too bad the ladies had missed it...

Spike had hung around to see his blushing bride and sis...And was horrified to find BR staggering in...

Another neural problem?...Maybe Warren's new brain was on the blink?...

Had she accidently stuck her finger into an electric socket?...

"Oh sheetheart..." she grabbed and hugged him...He was always waiting for her...Her little Spikey...Oops...Didn't mean to nearly strangle him...

"She's ok, Spike..." Buffy assured him... "But if I don't miss my guess she's going to have one robotic hangover tomorrow..."

And if I hadn't had to be "Mom" tonight...she thought...Well, someday BR could cover for her...

Too bad Warren wasn't around to see the fruits of his obsession with accuracy...

At the Magic Shop the next afternoon...

Giles, Basey, Willow, Tara, Anya, Wesley, and a somewhat hyper Leroy...reviewed the events of the past few days...

Giles agreed with Basey that the peace agreement was unreliable...Though Willow felt Leto could be trusted to maintain quiet for now...

They agreed that normal Patrols should be maintained with both Buffy and Basey working together once the Walthrops were off to Europe...

Giles noted that Willow seemed distracted, although she made a valiant attempt with Wesley to continue researches on Drusilla's possible movements...And to prime Basey on the current state of Hellmouth activities...

Long day in class on top of a busy night, no doubt...

He was a bit preoccupied in any case...

Anya was battling a raging hangover headache and those annoying customers who insisted on being dealt with in spite of her obvious aliment...

Basey left with her brother to look at possible future apartments...Her current plan was to stay in Sunnydale at least until Spike and Buffy Rebecca would return and the Council let its wishes be known...

She was anxious to check on the possibilities for taking at least some college courses as well...And intrigued to hear that Buffy Rebecca had found a unique way to avoid residency requirements using the underground network run by demon and vampire "references"...

If she stayed in Sunnydale, she might speak to Spike about his vampire network connections...

She'd no desire to lose another year of school if it could be avoided...

And a Slayer deserves some breaks...

Willow was called away by Tara to look at gowns... Seeming quite relieved to get away from the computer and books...

They wouldn't be going for anything too elaborate but the robotic copy of one's best friend doesn't marry her vampire nemesis everyday...

Still she felt she had forgotten to mention something to Giles...But her head was throbbing...She'd think about it later...

As they all left, in came a new batch...

The vamp boys had delightedly strolled Sunnydale in daylight, under the terrified supervision of the Buffies and Cordelia...

Wesley couldn't help smiling at them...It was nice to see the boss in non-brood mode...He and Cordy had worried about Angel's reaction to the marriage news but he seemed genuinely glad for Spike...

Although of course his happiness needed to have some limits...Perhaps he should show him the books for last month...

Spike was planning to show "Granddad" his lab and office next...With Buffy Rebecca proudly in tow...

He'd never seen the place himself in daylight...

Angel was still trying to get past the idea of "Dr." Walthrop the "cybergenius"...

I mean it's nice that Spike is at last gainfully employed...But somehow he had never seen his "grandson" as a scientist...

Dawn brought a package over to the store after school...Addressed to Spike care of Buffy of all things...

Spike looked at Giles and Angel...And quietly suggested they open it outside...

He and Angel carefully took the box outside...Buffy Rebecca insisted on coming as well...

The others waited...Dawn suddenly realized why they were making such a fuss...

There couldn't be much doubt about who had sent it...

Angel, Spike, and Buffy Rebecca re-entered the store quietly...

Angel was trembling...Spike put his hand on his shoulder...

Giles looked at them...Buffy Rebecca handed him the package without a word...And hugged Spike gently...

The others came over to see...

Dru had decided to send a gift...Addressed to William Walthrop c/o Buffy Summers...Inside quite a lovely card, which Dru had headed "Dearest children..."

With an appropriate poem...

"A mother's love knows no bounds...

And the tie that binds is unbreakable..."

She had signed at the bottom...

"All my love on your wedding day...Mother..."

It actually was quite a lovely gift...A beautiful old necklace...

Which Angel recognized only too well...

The only piece of jewelry the human Drusilla had kept when she entered the convent where Angelis had murdered her...

The Tie That Binds...Part XII

Angel was troubled...Drusilla was after all his responsibility...

A feeling that Buffy secretly shared...And she did not doubt that BR felt likewise...

As much as they loved Angel...

Both she and Buffy Rebecca had realized who was in danger from Dru now...

Whatever hopes she might still have of destroying the Slayer...It was her "boy" who was the primary focus of her attention...

And who would be the more vulnerable of the Walthrops in facing her...

But Spike was determined to deal with Dru himself...And they all could see he felt it was a part of his redemption...Full circle to close the arc begun with a bad love poem and a chance meeting with a lost soul and psychotic vampiress...

He'd felt human Drusilla's agony down through the years in flashes...And never so much as when Willow had freed her for an instant...

Besides he wanted to see the old home ground...At last in daylight...And show his soon-to-be wife around...

And after all Walthrop wanted to earn his keep at his company...And Europe was a burgeoning market for bionetics..With BR at his side to cover the nuts and bolts...And his "instinctive persuasive abilities"...

Angel would have enough to do chasing Darla down... A Darla still hemmed in by Willow's restraint on attacking humans but sure to be deadly when cornered...

And Spike would have the assistance of the Greatest Slayer of All Time...

Buffy guiltily agreed... Poor Angel, he still had not fully realized what the merging of the two sisters' memories had done to her feelings for him...Still strong, but not what they had been...

She'd noticed a couple of nights ago he'd asked about Willow's resurrection spell with considerable interest...

Had he been...Considering it?...

Willow had warned him there was no way to guarantee which would control the resurrected body...soul or demon...At least in the case of such an old and experienced demon as Angelis...

As opposed to Buffy's newborn demon which had fearfully fled the death of the vampire body...

Another faint hope shattered...At least he hadn't counted on it...And he did not know her feelings for him had faded...

There was no reason to put this burden on him as well...She did her best to indicate that she fully agreed with Spike's view...Angel had enough to do...

But Angel had seen that she feared for Spike...

There were only two items to be settled...One fairly minor...

Buffy Rebecca wanted to see Giles alone...Just for a moment...

He couldn't resist teasing her about the hole in his wall...That she had made the day the gang had learned of her existence...When he "trapped" her in his storeroom...Which had weighed on her mind for weeks afterward...

She was still embarrassed about it...But much more nervous about her current request...

"Giles...I would love for you to give me away...But that's a privilege Buffy deserves..."

However they had decided it was best not to have a minister given the circumstances...Instead...if Giles would possibly consent to read the Anglican service...

At least to have an Englishman read the Church of England service would make Spike feel better...The next best thing...

Giles would be very pleased to do so...

And Warren, although a little startled, was for his part glad to oblige when she asked him to give her away...

The other was to be done the next day...but would be a strictly Summers' affair...Kept more or less in the background...

Only to spare the others more grief...

They'd had enough sorrow to last a lifetime...

However Spike and Angel had guessed what might be up and the Buffies found themselves rather anxious to have them come when they quietly asked about it...

Hank Summers deserved a decent memorial service...

Tara and Willow were continuing a gown hunt...

It was wending its way towards sunset and Willow was feeling increasingly restive...She couldn't find anything that suited...Let Tara decide, she was tired and ready to go home...

Tara noticed both her irritability and her lethargy...Willow decided it was best to show a happier face, found one gown and tried it in the dressing room...She wanted some privacy for what she needed to do...

Tara was sensing something wrong...And with her sensitivity...She wouldn't hurt Tara for the world...But she didn't want to be interfered with...Just something to dull her senses...

Just a mild, slightly sedative spell...

She might want to go for a walk alone tonight...In the cool fresh air...And Tara might get all...

So just something to keep her off her back...

Basey returned a bit grim from her apartment search...

Well, yes, prices were high...she told BR...But it was more the attitude of certain types towards a young black woman with a small child in tow...

She didn't expect rewards any more than any other Slayer...But..

.

Somehow, coming from a rather dully middle-class stable family in a quiet place like Craftsville she hadn't expected to be seen as just off the "mean streets of the ghetto"...

Oh, well...Still...Even if she had been...Well...

Buffy and Dawn wanted her to stay in any case...Besides they could use help with the mortgage and it would be more efficient for coordinating activities...

Which would likewise please BR...Knowing her sisters had extra help at close hand...While she was off with the hubs...

Willow and Tara returned with reasonable success from their hunt...Willow seemed much more animated, Giles noted...

She set to work with Wesley who thought he had a track on Dru...to Salt Lake City and a flight to New York...

Tara was a bit exhausted and even quieter than usual...

Though both were concerned to hear about Dru's little joke...

" 'The tie that binds is unbreakable'..." Willow read... And looked at Spike...

"She knows you're coming for her..."

"And is prepared to take me with her..." he finished for her...

"Not while I'm around..." Buffy Rebecca said grimly, joining them...

"Looks like it's become a daughter-in-law, mother-in-law thing..." Spike grinned at Willow...

"Where have my quiet bachelor days gone?..." he smiled at BR...

But he was worried...

Would he lose his new happiness before it had barely begun?...And yet...

William Walthrop had a duty to perform...To a lost and trapped young woman he'd never even met...Alive, at least...

Basey sat with Angel and Cordy for a bit...Although she was understandably nervous around vampires, he was after all, a little more of an outsider to the group...A common bond there...Although she was settling in quickly...

Besides she was fascinated by his story...And not a little by him...

Seeing that Basey had settled in with Angel, Buffy decided to spend a moment with her "stop-gap", Warren, who was still recovering from BR's request...

"So 'Dad'..." she teased... "Any advice you give to BR you should be sharing with me, you know..."

He smiled back...Nice to see her so much happier...

Really quite a lovely and sweet young woman underneath the implacable Slayer who'd once tortured him in order to find and destroy her robot double...

Basey's brother Leroy was not happy however...He kept staring at Willow...Who underneath a pose of contentment and interest in the goings-on was increasingly nervous...

She wanted a breath of fresh air...A long walk in the clear night outside...Why was the boy staring at her so?...

Basey and Angel noticed Leroy giving Willow the willies and Basey called to him...

He did not want to leave his post...And Willow now began to glare at him...

Basey went over to him...But Angel, watching from the table saw Willow's strange glare...

It was rather out of character...But she had been through a lot recently...

Willow wiped the anger away with an effort and was back to her usual self...

However, Tara being clearly exhausted...she felt it was time to head home...

From the table where Angel, Cordy, and Basey sat, Leroy quietly watched them leave...

"She's sick..." he turned to his sister... "Like you Basey..."

She apologized to Angel and Cordelia for her brother...He seen her at her worst during her time under Sentinus' thumb and was still frightened when he met new people, especially women...

"It must have been rough..." Cordelia started...

She nodded...

"I honestly believed I loved him for a while...But it was only his dream..."

"It took everything I had to destroy him... But the worst was...I think he actually came to care for me...He could have killed me at the end, but he hesitated..." she smiled a little at Angel...

"So I apologize if we both seem nervous around humanish vampires..."

Angel nodded...And smiled...

But his eyes were on the trail Willow and Tara had made in leaving...

Leto, vampire peacemaker and new leader of Sunnydale's undead, was sorely tried...

He desperately wanted to complete what he had begun with his old pal's granddaughter...He longed for companionship, especially that of one as sweet as gentle Willow...Someone fit to be at his side in the new era of peace and prosperity he had created...

But there was the rub...If he rushed, if the Slayers learned what he was up to...The peace and his new position of leadership would crumble into dust...And more than likely he himself along with it when they caught up with him...

He must proceed cautiously...He could see the night before they were very suspicious of him, although he and Willow had kept them from guessing the truth...

He decided to seek the advice of the most learned vampire he knew...His own sire, a "professional" in every sense of the word...With vast experience in dealing with humans and their world...

Phil, aka "The Voice" famed for his ability to acquire both knowledge and implements...And for his business acumen...

Who had forged numerous stable and profitable business relationships with humans, thanks to his legendary self-control...

Who had been one of the strongest initial boosters of the peace...

After all, violence is bad for business...

Phil was quite pleased to be consulted by his "son"...And proud of his boy's success...Although he himself preferred to operate in the shadows as befitted "the Voice"...

He agreed that caution was imperative...But he also agreed that to win the Slayer's dearest friend would be a major plus...In terms of information alone...Not to mention the additional leverage on the Slayer's emotions...If it could be done in a way that would not arouse her suspicions and wrath...

Leto had made an excellent start...Now he must be patient...Simply keep the young lady under his influence by the barest minimum...Never see her without heavily feeding first...And know the Slayer's (Slayers', Leto corrected, much to Phil's shock...Three Slayers? in Sunnydale?...)

movements at all times...

And when the time was perfect...a quick transformation...done without any suspicion falling on him...

Followed by a hunt, a quest of noble proportions...Carried out by the peacemaker Leto anxious to assist the Slayers' dear friend, a poor girl trapped in a terrible predicament...Finding her, lost in a new and dark world...Saving her from performing what might have been unspeakable

acts...Winning new credit with the Slayers as their friend's protector...and restrainer...

A very profitable scenario...

Phil gave him some pointers on improving self-control...Deep breathing, heavy blood drinking beforehand, a good and vigorous work-out...leads to a cool head and a focused mind...

And promised him any assistance he might need...

Willow had been vaguely disappointed to reach home without a visit from...someone...Who?...

She couldn't quite put her finger on a name or face...But someone...

But as Tara was still groggy from her mild spell and went to sleep quickly, she decided to take a stroll in the night air...

With the hope of a meeting...

Which after a time was granted...

Leto was restrained and courteous...Taking and giving just enough to keep Willow "interested"...

Despite her strongly urging him on to complete the task...He comforted her with the assurance that they would be together...forever...quite soon enough...And pointed out the benefits of a slow process which she reluctantly accepted...

A meeting she had soon forgotten on returning home...Almost completely...

The Tie That Binds...Part XIII

It was a meeting held under "unusual" conditions...A room filled with guards bearing crossbows...and standing ready by blind-closed windows...

Dru had sought a "face-to-face" meeting with Sir Harold of Wolfram-Hart, Europe...

She wanted to discuss her maternal difficulties as well as the possibilities of her employment...

Sir Harold reluctantly agreed...If it were done in daylight...Dru alone...With Wolfram-Hart, America flat on its back, a powerful vampire like Drusilla could be a vital ally...And they had common enemies..Angelis, the Slayer,...and now William the Bloody...

Whom Sir Harold had encountered once...sixty years ago at Leningrad, when as liaison to Hitler's Death's Head SS Legion/Vampiral he had accompanied the force in an attack...Which had been shattered by the efforts of William the Bloody, posing as a newsman and a Soviet Slayer...

Even then William the Bloody had been an occasional renegade to the cause of true evil...Now he was likely to become as great a threat as the reformed Angelis...

Sir Harold had weighed the options of an alliance with Dru...One that would offer an opportunity for personal as well as corporate revenge...

Time and a long role as a mild-mannered English barrister had not mellowed him...

Sir Harold was indeed in magnificent shape for a man of over eighty...One of the fringe benefits of working for WH, access to all sorts of life-prolonging secrets...

To crown his career with the destruction of the Greatest Slayer of All Time and William the Bloody, famed vampire traitor...Yes, it was worth risking Dru's more unique forms of "memo"...

And in fact she seemed quite chastened by her recent defeats...Quite anxious to win his support and aid...

Hardly the psycho he'd been warned about...Still...

He sensed it was best to keep any meetings on a strictly professional basis...

Angel sought out Giles...And described what he had seen of Willow's and Leroy's behaviors...

And his own sensations...After all, no one better to sense a vampire's touch...

Willow had proven after all to be perhaps the most formidable member of the gang...In her own way

possibly more powerful than any of the Slayers themselves... If some enemy

had learned the full extent of Willow's abilities...

It seemed unlikely that it would be Darla...She was almost certainly still battling Willow's and Giles' restraints...Besides she would not wait in transforming Willow and would not hesitate to let them know exactly who had destroyed her...

Some new enemy or perhaps...a forgotten older one...

It made sense, Giles agreed...He seen more than ever in their last battle how dangerously powerful Willow's abilities had grown...And yet she remained so vulnerable...Yes, it might very well be...

And if it was true, they had to proceed with the utmost caution...As an enemy, with her knowledge of their weaknesses and her ever-increasing powers, Willow might prove the most formidable they'd ever encountered...

And if Buffy found out...In her present fragile condition...Even poor Buffy Rebecca would be shattered...

Buffy would be destroyed...

He sighed...Too soon, too soon back to the old fight...All of them were so exhausted...If only it would turn out to be a mistake, overcaution on Angel's part...But he was not going to take any chances...

And there was help at hand...A new Slayer who understood all about thrall and its forms...Who could assist Angel in watching Willow...Until they were sure and could learn the source of the evil threatening her...

Ms. Granger had her first assignment...

Before they all left the store, Cordelia had a vision...

Buffy Rebecca...unconscious?...dead?.. on a vast field of grasses, near a high cliff looking out to sea...

Spike standing beside her...throwing his daylight ring off into a nearby field...And collapsing...

The Walthrops...Defeated...At Dru's hands, perhaps?...

She told Wesley in private...

He begged her to keep silent about it for now...Yes, they should tell Giles and later, after the wedding, both the Walthrops if necessary...But after this terrible yet joyous month surely everyone deserved one bright, happy day...

Before the clouds closed in on them all again...

The Tie That Binds...Part XIV

There were no clouds on Buffy Rebecca's wedding day...

The brief service for Hank the day before had been a trial but the Summers' were comforted to know they had done something for Dad...

And comforted by the thought that he had proved himself, at the end, a true Summers...Even if his last effort to save them had failed...

Dawn was sure he was with Mom...wherever...

And while her sisters were not so sure they would be together...They were sure Mom would look after him...

And, thanks to BR's spirit time they could be sure...Both parents were out there...

Spike noted BR's and Buffy's faces...As haggard as the night he and BR had watched over Joyce's grave together...But both happy to have done what they could to let their Dad know he was not forgotten...

On the wedding morn, Angel was relieved to learn that Basey had confirmed his observations of the past two nights that Willow had not been further approached...by anything...

And now was at last a time for a little joy...

BR marched from the house in her gown to the tune Walthrop's mum had loved and that he had given to her..."I Know Where I'm Going..."

Actually, an Irish tune, an amused Angel pointed out to his "grandson"...

Always knew the lad had a touch of the blarney...

With her sisters at hand and Tara, Willow, Anya, and Basey in support...

And 'Dad' Warren on her arm...

Giles performed the reading of the ceremony in the Summers' back yard...

While both the Buffies watched over Angel and Spike like hawks...

Decked out in tuxes for the first time in...Well, ever...

Fortunately Spike's best man had been available to assist them in dressing...

But the Buffies would be happier when they were safely inside...

Spike gave BR a ring fashioned on the one his mother had worn...Walthrop's mother, Amelia, not Drusilla...as best as he could remember it to the jeweler...

A little Victorian but lovely...The second gift BR had received from her mother-in-law...Third if you counted the blushing groom...

Warren, as stand-in dad had arranged for the small hall where the reception was held...

Xander was on...

He'd discussed his speech at length with Anya...And briefly with Giles...

Both thought it was a good one...Still...

"Nobody had more doubts about this thing..." he nods to Spike and BR...who smiles at him...

"...than yours truly...After all,..." he indicates Spike who grins back... "This guy has been trying to kill us for the past few years...Though with pretty poor marksmanship..."

"But...I now think it will all work out...In fact, I know it will..."

He pauses...

"A certain lady we all know...sent us a message recently...And told us that her hold on William Walthrop was unbreakable..."

"Tough luck, Dru..." he smiles... "That tie is broken..."

"But there is an unbreakable tie that still does bind our friend Will and poor Drusilla, the human soul...Not the one her demon wanted to gloat about...Not one based on hate and suffering..."

"The tie that we all share...That comes to us through our three Slayers..." he nods at them and they nervously smile back...Why, Alexander Harris...

"The tie based on their love and compassion...Even for the most cursed...The reason we love them and will always be here for them..."

"That's the tie that will never be broken..."

"No matter what may happen to us in the future..."

"And that tie is the basis for the love our two friends share...And why I know that love will triumph..."

"So, God bless our two friends...And may they see the endless happy days they both have earned...The hard way..." he grins at Spike...

"To the tie that binds us..." he raises his glass...Angel and Wesley on their feet to cheer...

"Hear, hear..." calls Giles...Banging on his glass...

The two elder members of the group proved to be most proficient at dancing...Especially considering they were each over 100...

Although Giles was by no means far behind...Particularly with Basey as his partner...

Who was still fascinated by his charming accent...

Willow was in better spirits though more tired...But she enjoyed the fruits of "Operation Distraction" as she watched Buffy and Warren dancing...

Amazingly enough the "cybergenius" could do a mean waltz...

Courtesy of his eminent partner...who had thought it was high time to return some of his friend's favors...

While Dawn attempted to deal with the many dance requests thrown her way...

Buffy Rebecca taking a brief break, discussed the future with her sister and the rest of the gang periodically dropping in from the dance floor...

The Walthrops would of course return to Sunnydale...She and Spike thought the Crestwood-McGarvey area would be good for them...A little run-down, but with some fine old homes...And somewhat in need of the Slayer's attention...At least if the current peace broke down...

But she was a little down about...one thing... Not that she had anything to complain about... After being resurrected and all...Twice if you counted Buffy's as hers as well...

And of course...Being more or less immortal...it might have been difficult to face...the inevitable loss...

And who knew how Spike would have handled...Fatherhood?...

Of course, they could adopt... If he would agree and if well, they could adjust to the idea of outliving their children...

Spike...A father?...Buffy, Willow, Anya...somewhat shocked...It hadn't occurred...Well, ok it had occurred to Buffy...After all...

Still...to actually talk about it...

Wow...

But the "cybergeniuses" had a little surprise for their favorite girl...

Which Spike had been sitting on for a week...Nervous that BR would be utterly against any thought of children...raised by a vampire father...even a reformed vampire father able to go out in the daylight on occasion...

A new product, courtesy of their breakthroughs in bionetics...Which he had learned about while reviewing the company's line for his European excursion...

He'd only once seen BR shocked...When he told her he had his first job interview in over a century...At her birthplace, Xortox Labs...

And even then she'd been somewhat prepared...He had been working there as Warren's assistant already...Supposedly on his own grant...

This...she was definitely not prepared for...

All the gang gathered...

"It would only take a minor installation..." Warren explains... "You already have a blood synthesizer and bio-mass utilization unit..."

"And I...well...left room..." he adds, a little embarassed...

Of course they'd have to review the occult side of things with Giles... Spike told her...Make sure no demon could be passed on...But as for his...biology...All systems go...

And there was one small additional thing...One thing Warren couldn't generate...

Oh...right...Buffy thought...Oh!...

"Oh...you need an egg donor..." Anya says happily... "Buffy, isn't that great...You could be the donor..."

"Hey, what a great idea..." Dawn chimes in...No one had noticed her slipping into the conversation...

Dawn was quickly removed to the far corner of the hall by Xander...

Geesh, as if we weren't taught biology at school...she thought...

Egg donor?...me?...thinks Buffy...Me, the biological mother of Spike's?...

Sis?...thinks BR...The biological mother of our?...

"It doesn't have to be you..." Spike nervously puts in...

Oh, really...

"I'll have to think this one out..." both Buffies in stereo...

Still...

The Tie That Binds...Part XV

After the Buffies recovered from the shock of the "cybergeniuses" breakthrough news...The Walthrops left for Spike's...Now Spike's and BR's...

Although she would still occasionally need the biotank...Possibly once a month...Warren had told her...

Great...she thought...What if...

"I can break down the main components and ship them with you...Spike can set up a new one in Europe...Shouldn't be a major problem..." he reassured her...

Great...dragging that thing with me...forever...

Well...existence, happiness, love, resurrection, possibly motherhood...I can't ask too much of "Dad"...In fact...

"You know, Buffy will really need some companionship while we're away..." she looked at Warren...with an open-hearted wide-eyed Buffy stare...

Buffy asked Angel to take her back to the house...

She was feeling guilty...She'd been avoiding him a bit...

"So...that's what you look like in a tux...In the daylight..." she smiles at him...

"I couldn't have looked worse than Spike...Did you see him tremble all through the service?..." Angel grins back at her...

She laughs...Full and heartily...

First time in so long...At least I can still make her a little happier...he thinks...

"We hit him with that all afternoon...He got us back good though...When Buffy Rebecca and I heard the 'cyberboys' start talking about their 'breakthrough'.."

"Is there no limit to what Science can do?..." Angel laughs...

"Your grandson...the Doctor..." she takes his hand...And turns a little serious... "Well...I guess it's been a little hard on you...Everything at once..."

"Nothing compared to what it's been like for you, Buffy..." he looks at her...

"It's been hell...Well now I know a little of what you go through every day..." she nods...And pauses...

"I've acquired...Some of BR's memories...During our merged time..." she looks sheepishly at him... "They've screwed me up...Just a little...So if I've seemed...distant..."

"It doesn't surprise me that you'd grow to feel something for old Spike...My grandson is a promising lad, after all..." he smiles again... "And you have a heart that can embrace any creature capable of returning affection... I should know..."

He always makes it easy for me...she thinks...And I give him so little...

"I won't let them...Crowd out what we've had..." she pauses...

"What matters to me is that you're happy, Buffy..." he looks at her... "If I could give you that...I wouldn't hesitate to fight...But...for now at least...I can't..."

"Besides...from what Warren told me about BR's nature...There must be a potential Buffy out there

for me too..." he grins again...

"There'll always be a Buffy right here who loves you..." she says, taking his hand... "Always..."

"That's why I keep coming back..." he nods... "But this is sounding like good-bye...And I've no intention of heading out just yet..."

"So...I can finally show you the Sunnydale sights..."

"It's what I live for...But..." he pauses...

"I'm thinking of sending Wes and Cordy back early...To cover for me..." he grins...

"Slavedriver..." Buffy teases...And kisses him... "I'm glad you came...And glad you'll be here for a while..."

"Well, Spike is not the only fellow ready to wait for a Buffy for all eternity..."

"Someday..." she smiles sadly at him...

"Someday..." he nods...

He left for Giles'...

He was more determined than ever to save Willow...

Basey had gone back with Giles to the store after sending her brother home with Dawn via Xander...

They had to discuss the Willow situation in private...She felt rather guilty...Her exam of Willow the night of what must have been her attack had turned up nothing...

But Giles reassured her...If not for her brother, even Angel would not have guessed...At least not until it was too late...Whoever was involved was obviously proceeding slowly and cautiously...

Angel joined them a few minutes later...He was now a guest of Giles in any case so there would be no suspicion aroused on Buffy's or BR's part by his coming over...

It was likely Willow's transformation pace would be moved up with the departure of the Walthrops...One less Slayer to worry about...

She would have to be watched 24/7 from now on...But it was also imperative that she not catch on...At least until Giles could prepare some powerful restraints on her...Possibly Tara could assist there but that also would call for caution...Her behavior the previous night suggested that Willow was already watching her and might learn what was up through her if they brought her in...

Giles could however give them a very general protective spell against witchcraft, supported by some amulets to ward off negative spells...

That might afford some protection if she caught on to their surveillance...

This...is ridiculous...thought Spike...

I've been with her before...There is no reason on Earth to be nervous...And yet...

The only other time was in a crypt...After her resurrection...

She wasn't exactly in a normal frame of mind...Now...This time...

The start of everyday life with Buffy Rebecca...

She burst in on his reverie...In her nightgown...Looking...utterly...

"Are you as nervous as I am?..." she grins at him...And takes his hand...

"Shattered with terror..." he admits...

"We'll be fine...in the end...I'm sure of it..." she laughs... "My first night in a real bed...I just realized it..."

"I...haven't done anything...to deserve this..." he chokes a little...

She looks at him calmly and clearly...And takes his hand again...

"William Walthrop has done nothing not to deserve this...As for his demon...It's never going to be here...Between us..."

He was crying...just a little...

"Poor Angel..." he says to her... "Poor fellow, he's the one...who really..."

"He has Buffy..." she looks at him... "He does... Even if he has to wait ...And he has his own road to take...You and I have each other..."

She grins... And hugs him...

"After all, I personally prefer blondes...and good immortal ones are hard to come by..."

Oh...the indescribable and absolute joy...

The Tie That Binds...Part XVI

Buffy Rebecca was up early the next morning...Her new hubs, not yet quite used to a day schedule was sleeping in...

She had plans anyway...To meet for breakfast with her sis...Just a quiet chance for them to be alone together before things got insane again...

Besides...Buffy wanted details...and Buffy Rebecca, being Buffy...wanted to share them...With the one person who would understand her completely...

Plus, she wanted to know Buffy's plans and the details of her talk with Angel...

She was, of course, careful to secure Spike's daylight ring before she left...And to double check the apartment windows...

No way was she taking any chances with her "cybergenius"...

Spike awoke a little while after she left...And was briefly terrified...

It was much too likely to have been a beautiful dream...

Fortunately, BR had anticipated his reaction and left a note reminding him of her plan to rendevous with her sis...

He was a little irritated for a moment to find she had hidden or taken his ring...Surely after more than a century of surviving countless foes...

Still, what a joy to know someone cared...Even if she viewed him as a somewhat incompetent clod...

Giles called...He knew the Buffies were meeting and thought Spike might like some breakfast company...Could he and Cordelia stop by?...They'd bring bagels...

They would be very welcome...

Cordelia told him of her vision, reluctantly...

He nodded...It made sense...And he knew Dru would make a powerful foe...

"It could be from the distant future, Spike..." Giles reassured him... "And in any case...I've learned, ever since the Master's little game not to trust completely in prophecy..." he nods to Cordy... "With all due respect to the accuracy Cordelia's visions have always shown..."

"And remember I saw Buffy's attack on Willow...And she survived it..." Cordy put in hopefully...

Spike couldn't help noticing Giles flinch a little when Cordelia mentioned Willow...He looked at Giles...Something else wrong?...

"But we want you to be as prepared as possible...And forewarned is forearmed..." Giles finished...

Spike thanked them...

"We know it will be dangerous...We'll take every precaution we can..."

"But thanks, Cordelia...An ounce of prevention, you know..."

Cordelia needed to use the facilities...And wanted to peek around Spike's place...

Spike took advantage of the moment alone...

"Giles...Is there something else?..."

Giles nodded and mouthed Willow's name...

No...thought Spike...Not so soon, and not poor Red...Powerful and dangerous poor Red...he corrected...

Cordy came back...Spike had a request...BR had meant for him to get a few things in case guests dropped by...But she'd forgotten to leave his ring...Would she possibly drop by the little store around the corner...Just a very short list...

She was happy to...But...

"You know guys, I'm not quite as brain dead as I may appear...If you need to talk you just have to ask..." she grinned as she went out...

"Our team is always full of surprises and unsuspected talents..." Giles smiled at him...

"Amen to that..." Spike grinned...

Now as to Willow's "situation"...

BR was very pleased to hear that Buffy was putting some distance between herself and the Spike memories she acquired from BR...And that she had gone a long way toward restoring her relationship with Angel...At least to the extent it could be a relationship...

And Buffy was sincerely happy to see BR's joy...And amused to hear of the newlyweds' nervousness...

Just like any other couple...

They would be diverging a little from now on, BR pointed out...She had the fixed relationship, a firm pattern to her life from now on...Just as she'd always known...

Of course, a firm pattern likely to have some incredible ups-and-downs...

Just one of the potential paths for Buffy...A wonderful one, but...

But...And she smiled at her sis...Buffy had the unfixed route...Wide open to all potentials...And as tough as it might seem now...There was something wonderful to be said for that, too...

Buffy nodded...

"But it will be good to know I will always have you to count on, sis..." she grinned...Taking BR's hand... "A little fixed reliability in this universe is a pretty valuable thing...And even Giles, Willow, and Xander can't be there for me forever..."

And to think I was out to destroy her without mercy only a few weeks ago...

Spike agreed that their plan was the right way to go...Nothing should be done to arouse Willow's reaction, sure to be a dangerous one...

And with Angel around he was sure Willow would be saved...But, perhaps he and BR should delay their departure?...

Giles thought not...To change plans now would almost certainly arouse Willow's suspicions...And Basey and Angel could keep her covered with a little help from himself and Xander if necessary...

Hmmn...Much as he loved and respected his "best man"...Still Giles was right...

But as to the nature of their enemy...

He agreed that Darla was unlikely for now...Dru, almost certainly not...

But what about the actual vampires who attacked Willow and Tara the night of the party?...One of the three had escaped?...And Leto had appeared out of nowhere...Supposedly to "help"?...

"Leto is a possibility of course..." Giles noted... "He knows Willow from his human days...But...his status as peacemaker would collapse if he were to have done anything like this...And he clearly enjoys his position..."

"And the third one...The one who escaped...Has Leto come up with anything on him?..."

"He gave us a possible name the other day, via the network...One Theodore...Who has seemed to be opposed to the peace from the start..." Giles was thoughtful...

"Then it sounds like he's a good place to start..."

"Yes, if we can catch up with him...And take him alive..." Giles looked at Spike...

"Well, BR and I have two days before we leave...Maybe Angel and I should make the rounds of Sunnydale haunts..." Spike grinned... Reviving the old days already...Wait until the Missus finds out...

"It might be worth a try...But Spike, remember...Both you and Angel are very well known here...You can't hope to pass as ordinary vampires...And I for one do not want to see Buffy Rebecca a widow before her honeymoon..." Giles regarded him carefully...

"We'll be on guard...With BR in close support I have no doubt..." Spike grinned at Giles...

"Don't worry...she can deal with this...Even if Buffy can't right now...Besides..."

"She'd kill me if I did it any other way..."

Theodore was indeed in hiding...Leto having stage managed his escape during the fight with the three Slayers while, much to their own surprise, Theodore's "pals", agents of Leto, had been sacrificed...

Theodore was the essential ingredient in Leto's plan after all...The vampire renegade who was subjecting poor gentle Willow to a fate worse than death...From which the noble Leto would attempt to rescue her...Alas, without success...

That is, if his scenario worked out...So far, so good...

Theodore, grateful for Leto's protection, had no idea of his status as a pawn and was quite willing now to follow his instructions...for his own safety, naturally...

Now it was merely necessary to bring Theodore and Willow together one last time...under the appropriate conditions...Once the Slayers had been reduced by one, plus the famed vampire traitor William the Bloody, now almost a Slayer himself...Off to their honeymoon, according to

what Willow had told him...

To make things that much easier...

And Willow was increasingly willing to cooperate...

Even anxious...For the beginning of her new...existence...

The gang had a full meeting at the airport to see Benedictus off on his way to Greece...

Good old Ben...They would miss him...Particularly a certain young Ms. Summers...Deep in the throes of hero-worship...

He grinned at Buffy Rebecca...Victor over his maniacal sister...Who was in fact well on her way to becoming a much happier person as a result of her efforts...If somewhat less glorious...

"I don't know if Glory would thank you if she could...But I sure do..." he said to her...

"You saved Dawn for us, Ben...More than thanks enough..." she took his hand...As did Buffy, coming over...

"I still can't quite get used to the two of you...But then...I guess both our families are 'interesting'..."

"Give me best to Dreg..." BR grinned... "A brave little guy even if he was on the wrong side..."

"He's happy...Has all he ever really wanted..." Ben smiled...

Dawn clung close by...And followed him down to the boarding area...With her sisters in close...

"Goodbye...Ms. Summers..." Ben said formally... With a twinkle... "Hope that trip to Greece comes off for you..."

Trip to Greece?...The Buffies wondered...

"Goodbye Ben...Please write..." Dawn hugged him...

These Summers girls...he thought...Well, he was after all immortal...And who knew but that someday... He looked at the nervous Buffies who were clearly thinking the same...

Well, we'll see...

He waved to them as he headed out to the plane...

All in all, the Buffies couldn't help thinking...Not the worst possible match-up for Dawn...Especially if she turns out to be an immortal herself...

Still...Glory...as a sister-in-law?...

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

Anyway...unless Warren makes up a Xander-bot...you really couldn't do much better than a benevolent god of mercy and healing...With a medical practice...

And Warren is emphatically out of that line of the business...

Unless of course an emergency ever requires...A little extra help...

The Tie That Binds...Part XVII

Buffy Rebecca was heart-broken to hear from Spike of Willow's danger...

But...grateful that the still recovering Buffy had been spared the terrible news...And even more grateful that he trusted her to handle the truth...

Even though he knew she would insist on playing at least a supporting role in the hunt for Theodore...

The basis for their lasting relationship...

Fortunately those not yet in the know about Willow would assume the Walthrops were "occupied"...And that Angel was assisting Basey on patrol to give Buffy a few more evenings solid rest...

There were two basic possibilities...Either Theodore was the cause of the problem, a relatively basic vamp attack, to be dealt with in the traditional manner...Or, he was a pawn in someone else's game...

In either case, the fact that they were known might actually help Spike and Angel in their efforts...By bringing the enemy openly out after them...Theodore or whoever...

BR promised to be "discreet" in backing them up...

"Discreet"...thought Spike...Yes, the Slayer wandering through every vamp den in Sunnydale...Nervously watching out for her new hubs and her old boyfriend...That ought to be "discreet"...

Still...to have somebody care...And not in a well-meaning "Sorry you got staked, Spike...We'll miss your rapid-fire repartee..." kind of way...

But he was equally nervous for her...She was a little too inclined to view herself as indestructible...And he could not get Cordelia's vision out of his mind...

Still, there should be no grassy fields or cliffs where they would be going...Tonight...

Sir Harold, head of Wolfram-Hart, Europe sent good tidings to his new partner, Drusilla...

Arrangements were in place to keep surveillance on the Walthrops from the moment they left Sunnydale...

They would never be out of sight of an agent of Wolfram-Hart... Even better he had secured the Montir pendant from what remained of WH, America for her use...

Allowing her the chance to approach the Slayer and her vampire undetected by their heightened sensibilities...But...

He was not entirely happy with Dru's rather vague plan...To capture the Slayer when she was alone, put her in thrall, and use her as an appropriate instrument against her boy...It smacked of the failures of the past, particularly Darla's...

Surely the situation called for a quick and neat assassination...Why take chances?...

But Dru had her heart set on having a close relationship with her new daughter-in-law...Not by any means a permanent one, like that which Darla had envisioned... in fact quite temporary...But close nonetheless...

Buffy would be on Dru's home ground now...Without the support of her friends...Save one...

Who would be kept suitably occupied until Buffy was properly prepared...

Drusilla had always set great store by her powers in hypnosis and thrall...At least for short periods...

And once Buffy was in her power, all she would need would be a few minutes, an hour...at most part of a day...

However the new, fear-shaken Dru was willing to be reasonable...Sir Harold's practical approach was a excellent back-up plan...

And for his part, Sir Harold did appreciate the beauty of Dru's scheme...William the Bloody destroyed by the source of his redemption...The Slayer dying with the agonizing knowledge she

had killed him...

Dru's mind had an exquisite beauty all its own...

Spike and Angel were discussing their plans for the evening at Spike's when Buffy and Xander dropped by...Bearing gifts...

Old photos, some keepsakes, a few extra furniture bits...which Buffy knew BR would appreciate having...

"Hi guys...Will, I've brought some stuff for BR and you from the house..." she greeted them...And kissed Angel, looking at them both...

Xander was struggling manfully with several boxes...But also watching them...

Spike was pleased to see Buffy looking so well...A little more rest and she would be back in form...And I'm back to Will again...A little less tension in our relationship won't hurt a bit...

He was also pleased to have to put off the current conversation for a bit and concentrate on happier matters...

They briefly discussed the pleasanter aspects of the upcoming honeymoon...But Spike noticed Xander watching him...and Angel for that matter...

A sudden burst of caution on Harris' part?...Commendable of course, but hardly...

Buffy noticed him looking at Xander...watching him...

She chuckled and kissed him...gently...

Wait a minute...

"Well?..." Buffy Rebecca says... "Human or robot?...Could you tell?..."

Angel was startled...But then he'd never thought about it...He actually couldn't tell...

"I've told Xander about Willow..." she explains... "Basey will need help watching Willow...And if Willow does realize she's there...Well, she loves Xander...It might restrain her..."

Xander nods...

She had thought about tonight's excursion as well...And there was a reason behind her little play-acting...Just give her a mo in the bathroom...

Both Angel and Spike were beginning to see...Ok, she could pass for human well enough to even fool a vampire...

But...

Rebecca Walthrop, brunette college student emerged from the bathroom...With a few more years added to her face, courtesy of a little practice and some manipulation of her facial musculature...A little advice from "Dad" had helped...

"What do you think?..."

Not bad...Great actually...A stranger could be fooled...But...

A human woman wandering around the local vamp dens...Who vaguely resembled the famed Slayer?...

"I just need one additional touch...If you would do the honors, sweetie..." she turns to Spike...

What?...

"A bite scar...I need a bite scar...You know, helpless human in thrall...Waiting in the den for her soon-to-be-sire...Happens all the time..." she smiles...

A perfect cover story...Well, a good enough one at least...

Even in this current peace-time there were bound to be a few hapless humans happily waiting to be finished off...And very few vampires would play with another fellow's food...

"Wait...I won't...Break anything?..." Spike was nervous...

"Only your teeth if you're not careful...And mind your chip...You've been frying your brain enough recently..." she glares a little at him...And turns to Angel...

"I would ask you, Angel...But this is kind of a couple's personal thing..." she grins...

She dragged Walthrop in tow to the bathroom...A little privacy for an intimate moment...

Xander looked at Angel...Angel looked at Xander...

Ummn...Anything to take their minds off what was going on...

A slight moan from...Spike...in the bathroom...

"Arghh!...Bloody Christ!..." they hear...

"Spike!...Watch it..." BR's voice drifts in to them...

"Sorry..." Spike again...

A slight moan...Now from Buffy Rebecca...

"Nice girl that Basey..." Xander says brightly...And loudly...

"Yes, indeed...First-rate Slayer..." Angel nods...

BR came out...Looking...A little dazed?...

They looked at each other again...

She grins at them...Clear-eyed again...And shows her new scar...

Masterful job...notes Angel...Spike always had a neat touch...

"Thrall enough for you?..." she grins...

Spike was a little worse for wear...Not so much the chip as feeling guilty...

She patted him gently...No harm done...And...

"I'm afraid I have no inclination to kneel at your feet, honey..." she smiles...

Fortunately for their upcoming battle with Dru...Warren's passion for accuracy had not extended quite that far...

But then he had never had much vamp experience before his friendship with Spike...

Consider it a trial run...Buffy Rebecca had comforted her hubs...

A chance for them to retest their mutual skills in the field before the major effort...

With Angel around, and the peace agreement in force as yet...there would be little danger...For either of them...

And after all, they were the Walthrops...the Summers-Walthrops now...The defeaters of the Goddess of Glory and Victory and the mighty Darla...

Facing a passel of frightened, cowed little vamps...

No problem...Willow was practically saved already...

He knew she was lying of course...And would be watching him every second, terrified...

Likewise the basis of their lasting relationship...

The Tie That Binds...Part XVIII

Angel, Xander, and Buffy Rebecca decided to give Walthrop a chance to recover from his efforts...They needed to collect a few things from Giles for Basey's and Xander's Willow surveillance anyway.

Impressed as he was by BR's ability to disguise herself and pleased that her robotic nature could indeed protect her against thrall, Angel, like her "Dr." Walthrop, was worried about her...

And took the opportunity to let her know his concerns...Which Xander was glad to reinforce...

She had after all been killed once...And anyone with a human soul, even a robot, was potentially in jeopardy of losing it...

"Don't underestimate whoever we're up against..." he cautions... "Not to mention Dru..."

No one knew Dru's potential like Angel...

She nods... "I'm not forgetting Dru has abilities I can't imagine...And, well... 'Dad' reminded me that even if I can't be turned...or be put in thrall...I can be hurt...killed...I could even be hypnotized..."

Now Xander was getting nervous...That was how Kendra died...

"And believe me, I don't want any of the above...For any of us...So..." she grins at them...Her dear fellas...So great to have them back with her...And to know they'd be around for Buf...If only Riley would get a move on...

"We're all going to be careful...And frankly I think we need to bring in more help..."

She looks at them...

"But guys...we don't have to make William any more nervous than he already is...Right?..."

They nod...

She is Buffy...thought Angel...No doubt about it...

Amazing what Science can accomplish...Shaking his head...These humans...

Xander left to take up his watch over Willow with Ms. Granger...Provided with extra protection by Giles' amulets...

The rest, Angel, Giles, and BR, were still uncertain about discussing things with Tara...Too dangerous if she was already being manipulated by Willow...And difficult to get her safely alone in any case...

But they agreed it was time to bring in Wesley and Cordelia...Who could provide backup for the Walthrops and Angel, particularly in the form of getaway transport...In case things suddenly got hairy...

And, since Buffy would need some company to keep her occupied...Warren and Anya were likewise included...

Willow threw a slight wrench into the works by heading over to Buffy's with Tara...

She thought Buf might be lonely with BR at Spike's and Basey and Angel on patrol...

And she was worried about Tara...Who still seemed lethargic at times...Delayed after effects of her exposure to Glory, perhaps?...

She wanted to discuss it with Buffy...Let her see and judge...Without upsetting her sweetie unnecessarily...

As for herself, she was feeling better, if a little run down... Though she had the odd feeling she had something to tell Buffy...Something important she couldn't quite remember...

"Where's Xander?..." she asked Anya, pleased to see she and Warren had come out as well to keep Buffy company...

"Oh...doing carpenter things...Sawing and nailing and...carpenter things...He may be by later..."

"Dedicated man..." Willow grinned...

Tara was a little pooped but began a conversation with Warren on his "breakthrough" in maternal cybernetics...Which was of considerable interest to Buffy...

There was no better place in Sunnydale to start than Willie's...

Where much to their surprise, Angel and Spike found themselves tolerably welcome...A few patrons turned their backs, most simply ignored them, while Willie the Snitch was all congeniality...

Peace had been very good for Willie...

And Leto, now the vampire power in town, had requested that the Slayer or any of her friends be treated with the greatest courtesy when visiting any haunts...

Which was enough for Willie to display his full charm...And to keep his "underground" clients in line...

But he had "nothing" for them when they requested any information on Theodore...Just that he was a loudmouth, the usual self-appointed Slayer-destroyer...

The twenty dropped causally on the table caught Willie's eye for a moment...Two more brought up a "friend", one Max who had known Theodore in happier days...

They made it clear that Theodore would be offered an amnesty...If he turned himself over at once...Information was all they wanted...At present...

Max agreed to let the word be spread...Not that he knew anything specific...But as a friend of the peace...

No one recognized the dazed-eyed brunette, of about thirty or so, who entered while Angel and Spike were quizzing Willie and his informant...

Just another happy meal, looking for her would-be sire...A little embarrassing, perhaps, given the peace and all...

"Well?..." Spike asked Angel on leaving...

They'd considered a call on Leto...But wanted to hold such a meeting in reserve...

"Let's wait a bit...See what Max does..."

Walthrop was happy enough to wait for his Missus to emerge in any case...

They took up a position in the nearest shadowy corner...

"Just like old times, eh boy..." Angel grinned at Spike...Who for his part could have foregone the good old days, thanks... He rather preferred the present...Or would when the Missus showed herself in one piece...

To Spike's intense relief, BR emerged a few moments later unscathed...

She kept up her dazed act, standing near the entrance...

Max emerged a bit later...looking distinctly nervous...

They followed discreetly...

Willow had begun the evening at Buffy's in good spirits but was growing tense and nervous as time wore on...

She had described Tara's symptoms to Buffy...Who agreed there might be good cause to have her checked out...

After all, it was several days before BR had shown the aftereffects of the electroshock that had shattered Glory...

But somehow Willow herself worried Buffy more...She seemed unusually irritable, especially around young Leroy and Dawn...And was rather curt with Anya...

Who for that matter did seem to be hovering a lot over Willow...

Xander and Basey reluctantly stayed near the house...Not much they could do with Willow in the Summers'...But at least she was inside and safe...

So far no signs of anything lurking around, trying to make contact...

Basey tried out her English accent on Xander... She had developed it watching the movie "Chicken Run"...

English accents were so classy...How'd hers compare with Giles'?...

Fascinating guy that Giles...By the way, did Xander happen to know if he was presently...

Hmmn...Xander thought...Brits are definitely in with Slayers this week...

Leto had almost instantly received word of Angel's and Spike's sleuthing...He was not especially disturbed...He had in fact counted on the Slayers or their friends becoming suspicious of Willow...And trying to locate good old Ted...

He just had to make sure events put Theodore and Willow together at the right moment...And allowed for his heroic rescue attempt...

Just a matter of stage-management and proper timing...With the Slayers' nearests and dearests in position as suitable eyewitnesses...

Max had headed for a relatively new vamp hangout, The Raven's Hair...

Rather easily catching up to her vamp boys, BR suggested they let her go in alone...She would be just the April equivalent of a poor soul in thrall, searching everywhere for her dear sire...Safer than letting Max and others see them inside...At least for the moment...

Spike reluctantly agreed...But only for a few minutes...Then...

"My Victorian gentleman..." she grinned at Angel... And promised to head back out in fifteen...

Angel wryly suggested they each cover an exit...If he knew Buffy and he did...BR would follow Max wherever he went...Without waiting a second for them...

Spike nodded...

The bartender, semi-demon, was nervous on seeing BR at the bar...A human woman wandering around...In thrall...Not good for promoting the peace process...Not likely to appeal to the boss' taste...

After all the boss was the founder of the peace movement...

He suggested the lady might like a cab...to the nearest hospital...

She was looking for a "friend"...BR told him...Someone she'd met a few towns over just a couple of nights ago...Who said he'd meet her again...in Sunnydale...Couldn't really remember his name...But his piercing eyes and...

The barkeep got the picture...Her "friend" was not likely to be here...Respectable, peace-loving place this...Really, the lady should rethink that cab...Maybe try a little nourishment...

She smiled wanly at him...And asked for a soda...

She'd wait...Just a bit, thank you...Maybe he'd show...

She noticed Max at a table...Cradling a glass...into which he surreptitiously poured the contents of one of Warren's blood packets...As befitting a staunch supporter of peace...

Speaking to someone, who was keeping rather to the darker side of the table...

The missing Theodore whom her supplemental memory identified despite the fact that she had only glimpsed him for a moment the night of Willow's attack...And had been seriously intoxicated at the time...

Too bad the damned thing wasn't allowed to kick in during her exams...

Willow had decided to call it a night...Rather early...But then, Tara was clearly pooped and she was worried about her...

Besides Anya and Warren could be trusted to keep Buffy company...

And she couldn't stay indoors any longer...With them all dropping by to look at her, asking her how she felt...Was she ok?...Enough already...

She just needed some air...

Max passed on Leto's good wishes to Theodore...All his problems with the Slayers would be ironed out...In fact, Leto was sure a simple apology at the right time would settle things...Not a thing to worry about...

He was called away by a phone call...

BR realized her "fifteen" was up...But she couldn't let Theodore just pass right through her fingers...

It might be the only chance for Willow...

Buffy expressed her concern about Willow to Anya and Warren...Didn't she seem?...

"Willow seems fine to me...For someone in her condition..." Anya helpfully replied...

Condition?...

"Oh...Powerful, dead-raising witch...She must be getting dozens of calling from the dead...And their relatives..." Anya quickly recovered the ball...

"Tara seems to be the one in trouble..." Warren tried his hand at "calming" Buffy's fears...

Trouble?...Ok, now what is going on?...

Buffy went into glare mode...Anya and Warren did their best to find other topics of conversation...

Never send a "cybergenius" and a recently rehumanized former demon to do a diplomat's work...


	2. Chapter 2

The Tie That Binds...Part XIX

Leto, on the phone to Max, was pleased to hear that Theodore was following orders and happy to stay put...for now...

With the dear friends of the Slayers searching for Teddy, tonight might be the night his dreams came true...

Still, he would prefer it to happen when fewer than three Slayers were in the vicinity...

Timing, he thought...It's all in the timing...A minute could mean the difference between a secure peace, with Willow at his side, their union tolerated if not blessed by the Slayers themselves...Or a return to the hunted life of an obscure vamp...And possibly much worse...

Not unlike the time when as a human pol he'd gotten the siting of UC-Sunnydale on his brother-in-law's farmland through the state legislature...

All a matter of timing...

To their credit, Anya and Warren resisted the implacable Slayer's efforts to learn the truth with some degree of success...

Which Buffy quickly circumvented by calling her Watcher...Who folded on hearing Buffy insist that Warren and Anya had told all...And hearing her starting to tear up...

She was furious...Not to be told her best friend was in grave peril...That her sis had taken on the full job of dealing with the unknown enemy...With the "help" of Spike and Angel, well ok...help in Angel's case...

Who did they think they were dealing with?...Would a little thing like her recent death and the loss of both parents stop the Slayer?...

Well, ok...She understood the caution...But how could they think she could bear the thought of Willow lost and her not being allowed to lift a finger to save her?...

Warren pointed out that she could not risk storming out after Willow and Tara...If Willow caught on and they were unprepared for her attack...Or if she chose to disappear and joined her new "friend"...She was after all under the careful surveillance of Ms. Granger and Xander...Who at

least had some anti-spell protection...

Buffy reluctantly agreed that the situation called for caution...After all, Willow's abilities were becoming quite awesome...

However...Warren suggested...Maybe a little discreet extra observation...From a distance...Wouldn't hurt...He grinned...

She couldn't help smiling back...Warren was definitely showing "potential"...

Besides, her flare-up brought back guilty memories of when she'd tortured him to find BR's whereabouts...

Anya was charged with the grim task of holding back the awesome force of Dawn and Leroy who seemed to have learned everything via some kind of osmosis...

"I told you the red lady was sick..." Leroy proudly told Dawn...

"I should go, Buffy...Willow likes me..." Dawn pleaded... "And I'm the Key...Maybe I can help..."

The Slayer turned down the Key's gracious offer...Slayers outrank Keys...In the Summers' household...

Looking at Dawn's and Leroy's angry faces, Warren was quite relieved to be assigned to Slayer backup...

Angel watched his "grandson" the "cybergenius" from his post outside one exit of the Raven's Lair sympathetically...

He was as nervous as a young bride...groom...

And with good reason...BR's "fifteen" had come, gone, and come again several times...

Although they each had peeked inside through a small window once or twice to confirm she was still at the bar...And looked unharmed as yet...

Angel himself was getting worried...Although he trusted in Buffy's...er...Buffy Rebecca's abilities...

Clearly something important was up inside to hold her there...

In fact, a show was up...

A play rather...now that the club's rather exclusive clientele had gathered...And one or two non-thralled human "slummers" been politely urged to head home...

No one bothered the young lady obviously in thrall at the bar...A courtesy kind of thing among vamps...And even with the peace...old habits die hard...

A saga was unfolding on the Raven's Hair stage...A tale of an innocent young fellow, recently granted the gift of immortality by a kindly older gentleman...Strolling through a certain small California town by night, feeling the lure of his new and amazing abilities...Peaceably

munching...on a small creature thrown his way...

When suddenly, without warning...A blonde fiend appears in female form...Hysterical, yelling, vowing death to the undead...Offering bizarre and sadistic "deals"...Backed up by a squad of strange, leering goons...Two males and three females, more or less human...Cracking sadistic jokes... And even supported by, horrifying to say...A fellow vampire...

Enslaved by their fiendish magic, no doubt...

The poor confused young innocent never has a chance...A sad end...

A cautionary tale...A little peace propaganda...

Watching the play as well as Theodore, BR did her best to maintain her thrall look...

So this is how they see me? she thinks...And what is with that girl's hair?...I've never worn my hair like that...And that lipstick?...My lipstick is never that...Well...ok, maybe sometimes...

But that shade looks so good on that girl on TV...

Well, at least mine looks better than that pseudo-Spike...And as for their Giles...Are those binoculars he's using for glasses?...

Willow was enjoying the walk home...If Tara didn't mind taking the longer route?...

Tara was tired but complied...Willow paid no attention to her obvious exhaustion...

Basey and Xander followed at a safe distance...And noted the route the two were taking would carry them past several secluded areas...

Buffy and Warren were also on the job...At an even safer distance, although Buffy was cautiously moving up...With her "stop-gap" guy in tow...

Leto sensed Willow's anxiety for another meeting...Although he was uncertain as to the timing, his bond to her was now working both ways, affecting his judgment as well as hers...And he was more lonely than ever, knowing she was so close...

Perhaps tonight was the night...But in any case, a brief meeting was necessary...Two hearts as ardent as Leto's and Willow's could no longer be separated...

He contacted Max at the Raven's Hair and informed him that Theodore should be persuaded to take a stroll... He, Leto himself, would meet them near the Greenwood cemetery to discuss ways of approaching the Slayers with an appropriate apology for his rash act in attacking her friends...

Why, if all went well, he might be able to arrange a meeting with one or more of the Slayers that night...Put the matter at rest...If Ted could show proper sincerity in his apology...

After all, the Slayers had shown themselves to be in a rather forgiving and tolerant mood these past weeks...

Theodore was underwhelmed with enthusiasm at the thought of leaving his secure haven...But if the Godfather of Sunnydale vampires wants to meet with you...

The barkeep was relieved to see that the lady thrall victim had recovered enough to want to go...She politely refused his offer of a cab and left quietly, just after Theodore and Max...

"Remember Miss..." the semi-demon called after her... "Leto's place treats you people right..."

Spike caught sight of her leaving by the front door...He and Angel followed carefully...With extreme relief...

BR continued on...keeping Max and Theodore in sight...

Drusilla got rather a charge out of using the Montir pendant which Sir Harold had indulgently lent her before the Walthrops' arrival on her strolls about downtown London in the twilight...

Nothing more droll than passing for human with some hungry vampire who was in the market for a shy young Englishwoman...The look on their faces when she revealed her "working" face was nearly as good as that when she killed them...

She had Spike to thank for teaching her the pleasure of killing her own kind...Though she now realized there had usually been some tiresome point to it with him...Motivated either by his ridiculous search for the release of death or some buried desire to do some good, make some

amends...

For her the look on their faces when they learned what they were not the hunter but the hunted...was quite enough...

On this particular night, however, her practice with the pendant was interrupted by contact with one of Sir Harold's tame vamps...Who informed her that Sir Harold urgently wished a meeting, if she could tear herself away from her sightseeing...

For her dear partner?...practically an elderly uncle to her...Anything...Even sparing his messenger...

He had news for her...And a gift she'd requested...

Gifts always came first with Dru...And this one was important...

She had, sadly, not kept anything of Spike's when she left him...Sir Harold after a diligent search had found something...

A single, first-edition copy of the works of a young Cambridge poet, one William Walthrop...Published after his mysterious and tragic disappearance by friends and family...

Sir Harold had glanced through it...Turgid stuff at best...Although a certain gloomy Romanticism that reminded him of the worst German stuff of that genre...

But it was something personal of her boy's... Just what she had been hoping for...And what she needed...To enable her to remind Spike of the tie that still linked them...In spite of his new associations...

Dru was pleased with her partner's success...and intrigued...Published by friends and family?...Her boy had had surviving family?...

That was Sir Harold's news...He had located Walthrop descendants...Living in England...Apparently descended from his sister and brother...

Dru was a bit hurt...Spike had had a sister and brother...And never mentioned them to her...

She however wouldn't imagine being so rude as to ignore them...Or at least their descendants...

The Tie That Binds...Part XX

Leto, Sunnydale's combination vampire Gandhi and Godfather, waited at the entrance of the Greenwood cemetery...With a few well-hidden "friends", some human, some vampire...

Waiting...For his beloved Willow...And for his "fall-guy" the hapless Theodore...

Who was being carefully shadowed by a disguised Buffy Rebecca, robotic Greatest Slayer of All Time, new Missus of "Dr." Walthrop, "cybergenius"...aka Spike...

Who, along with Angel, was likewise carefully trailing his dear Missus...Backed by Wesley and Cordy who had been waiting nearby as emergency transport during their check of vamp hangouts...

As for Willow, a woman deeply in thrall, she was rather eagerly hastening to what she instinctively sensed would be a life-altering rendevous with her new beloved...With a spell-sedated Tara in tow...

Followed cautiously by the two assigned by Giles to watch over her, Xander and Basey Granger, the new Slayer, chosen as a result of Buffy's recent and thankfully temporary second demise...

And at a greater but rapidly narrowing distance by Buffy, newly informed of Willow's peril, and Warren, Spike's friend and fellow "cybergenius", creator of Buffy Rebecca's artificial human brain...

Leto was very much aware of the danger he faced in risking a confrontation with no less than three Slayers...But the tie binding him and Willow was rapidly overwhelming his usual shrewd and cautious nature... So much so that even if his scheme to use Theodore as his "cover" failed,

he was now determined to stay his course...And win his Willow no matter what the odds...

A fellow in love does foolish things...

Giles had not been idle during this time and after caving over the phone to Buffy's mix of demand for information and insistence that she knew all, had decided now was as good a time as any to join the fight...And throw his own newly sharpened skills onto their side of the balance...

He realized after cell phone calls to Wesley and Xander that the two major divisions of the gang were converging on the Greenwood cemetery, once home to Spike and BR... Joyce Summers' final resting place...

A natural place of choice for Willow's would-be sire to meet her...

As with Buffy, the resumption of action was beginning to actually raise his spirits a bit...

And the thought rather pleased him that for once, he might reach the battle lines first...

He was ready, he hoped, to deal with Willow...

Giles had informed Xander that the other half of the gang was closing on the Greenwood cemetery in pursuit of BR who doubtless had found the missing Theodore...And that the plan to keep Buffy out of tonight's action had, as always, failed miserably...

Telling Basey of the reinforcements on the way, Xander was not entirely displeased to hear that for once they would have overwhelming firepower...Three Slayers, one with three times normal Slayer strength, Angel, even Spike...Plus the experienced counsel of Watchers Giles and

Wesley...Well, Giles' experienced counsel...Wesley's...enthusiastic support...

And of course, Basey generously put in...the famed Xander Harris...Whose abilities as a human Slayer were "legendary" to those associated with the Watchers' Council...

Really?...Human Slayer?...thought Xander...Nah, not "legendary"?... Well...We have seen a few unique things...

"Just doing my bit for the Slayer..." he modestly replied...As befits a legendary hero...

And of course Warren and Cordelia would do all they could...Tara as well, if they could get her free of whatever Willow seemed to be using on her...

Yeah, for once odds on our side...He felt pity for the poor fool vamp who'd gotten him...or herself in this one...

Basey just hoped she'd be up to his mark she told him...He understood, natch...Nervous on her first major encounter as a Slayer...

He'd look out for her...Likewise befitting to a legendary human Slayer...

Neither of them yet realized that strength and speed would not be what was required for this battle...

For once, Giles' car had not failed him and he reached the Greenwood cemetery ahead of Willow and the two groups in pursuit...

He saw someone at the entrance, hiding in the shadows, and took care to hide himself...

Others occasionally appeared...Obviously this was not a single vampire making a desperate attack on the Slayers' friend...

But Willow, followed slowly by Tara, arrived before he could get a glimpse of the leader...

He had to act quickly...The others would be here and he might not get another crack at Willow before she realized her sire's danger...

Giles had not extended his full abilities to their utmost in quite a while, knowing all too well the lures and dangers of such power...Warnings which he had been gradually trying to pass on to Willow...But just as he had had to encourage her use of new abilities to save Buffy, now he had

to tap his deepest skills to help her...

He could not match her in a fair and open fight any more but...If he caught her with her guard down...He might be able to block her ability to tap the dark powers...

Xander and Basey had decided to halt for a moment at the edge of the cemetery grounds to scope out the situation...And make sure Buffy didn't rush in without any protection...They at least had Giles' amulets...

Through binoculars, Xander saw Willow reaching the entrance, Tara falling behind...

Willow was definitely headed inside...And someone was crouching in some bushes near the gate...Too difficult to see...

They'd have to hurry...

Buffy and a bedraggled Warren came up just as they were heading out...

Xander tossed her an extra amulet without words and they all rushed for the gate...

Theodore and Max had entered the cemetery by a side entrance, with BR in close but stealthy pursuit...

Spike and Angel in distant and rather frantically obvious pursuit...Until Cordy and Wes pulled over and suggested they be sensible and not try to keep up with a robot on foot...

Arriving at the side entrance, all four entered as well...

Tara was exhausted and confused...What was Willow up to?...

Suddenly she caught sight of Giles near the gate...And called to him...

Just as suddenly...Members of the gang rushed past her towards the gate...Too fast for her to make out who...

Clearly something dangerous was a foot...Her Willow was trying to take the lead...She cried out to Willow that she should wait for the others...They were here now...

Willow had just reached Leto when she heard Tara calling out to Giles...Giles?...Here?...And begging her to wait for the others who were here to help as well...

She told her beloved to wait...Willow would deal with this...

Leto agreed to keep to his shadows but ordered one of his "friends" to pass the word to support her...

Giles first, thought Willow...He was the most dangerous, really...Not that she wanted to hurt any of them but...They had no right to interfere... With her latest lifestyle choice...

But events forced her to face a different foe...

Theodore had reached the appointed area with Max...He saw Willow but no Leto...

Then he saw two of the Slayers and some of their friends coming through the front entrance...Definitely not in diplomatic mode...

Set-up, he quickly realized...I have been set-up...

Max had vanished even as he looked toward the approaching doom...

Ted fortunately never even saw the threat closing in behind him...Much faster than that to his front...

But Willow did...

She turned to pit the full force of her fury on the rapidly closing BR...

Which gave Giles the moment longer he needed...

"Oh, Hecate...Hear my plea..." she began...

And found her ability to tap into her powers blocked by Giles' spell...

BR was on her in a second...took no chances, and determining the best pressure points via her supplemental memory, put Willow out as gently as possible...

And as quickly grabbed the hapless Theodore...

Tara who had entered the gate cried out, confused...

Xander swung back to explain and comfort her...Before she got upset and decided to try her hand at Willow defense...

BR dragged a feebly protesting Ted over to the rest of them...

But before he could tell them anything, a volley of arrows struck him and silenced him forever...

They all plunged through the cemetery, BR catching up with her part of the team and bringing them up to speed...

Only one human "friend" was found...Who would say nothing...

But his being human was all they needed to have a fair idea of who was responsible...

The best "connected" vamp in Sunnydale...

Leto...

Who had made a quick getaway...

Discouraging, they all thought...

All this extra firepower and we come up empty...

Still, for the moment Willow was safe and restrained by Giles' spell...And now that they knew for sure what the cause of her behavior was...They could face her with it and take measures to restrict its effects on her...

But Leto could be anywhere...And Willow's death and transformation was just a question of time unless they could destroy him...

A sweep of Sunnydale haunts turned up nothing...

Fortunately most vamps still seemed anxious to maintain the peace and agreed that they would abide by the Slayers' warnings not to break it...Less believable was their willingness to pass on any information as to Leto's movements and to turn him over if found...Still...

The resumption of open warfare was best avoided for now if possible...

They kept Willow sleeping through the night...

Back at the store the next day Giles treated Willow with what he had available...It might help some but...

At least he could help her remove the sedative spell from Tara...

Willow was now vaguely aware of what she'd been doing and was ashamed...Especially of what she'd done to Tara...

And terrified...She confessed to Xander in private that she remembered enough of the past night to know she had been ready to kill them if necessary...

He comforted her and reminded her that Buffy had been in a similar mood not that long ago herself...

Warren suggested an approach similar to that done with Dawn using the blood synthesizers to replace Willow's tainted blood...

Giles agreed that it might help to replace her blood...But Willow was not the Key, with an indestructible life-force...She was weakened already and to push her to the edge with a major series of transfusions...

Besides Ben was gone and there weren't too many doctors around who would "understand" the situation...

"Transfusions?..." Angel asked... "Heck, I can do transfusions...If Warren's stuff works for her blood type...It's simple..."

A necessary skill for a soulful vampire...

They replaced several pints but did not want to overdo...Willow seemed better between Giles' efforts and Angel's...

But no word on Leto...

And it was nearly time for BR and Spike to be on their way...The following afternoon in fact...

Which led to a brilliant and generous suggestion on their part...

Europe might not be far enough away to save Willow from Leto's work...But it would be far enough to prevent him from continuing the job...

While Buffy, Basey, and the team tracked him down...With the restored Tara's help...

Willow appreciated the Walthrops' offer but...To intrude on their honeymoon...And to leave the gang when they might need her?...

Still, she was frightened...If she stayed where Leto could mostly easily influence her...

BR and Buffy pointed out that the fight against Drusilla might require extra help in any case...

No one should underestimate Dru's abilities...Willow could perform a vital role there and would be less vulnerable in that fight...

And BR assured her that she and William would have plenty of time together on the trip...She'd want some female companionship anyway...Young bride adjusting and all that...

Spike nobly supported his wife's pleas...Besides to have Red along really would relieve his mind about BR's facing Dru considerably...

While Giles put in his bit...He'd put the squeeze on the Council, reminding them that Glory was still alive, that Dru was a major menace...To have a Slayer in Europe to check on the retired goddess and deal with the feared Dru would be worth...well...The costs of the Walthrops' honeymoon...

Thus no burden for Warren's and Spike's company...And a long overdue reward for the Slayers' efforts...

Mr. Giles certainly stands up for us, doesn't he...Basey noted to Buffy...

Hmmn...Buffy could not help thinking...Not that BR didn't deserve it...But...

And of course there'd be something to help Buffy and Basey with their college educations, Giles added...Again. long overdue rewards...

He'd been careful not to give the Council all the details of Glory's defeat...No need for them to think she was completely removed as a possible menace...And he'd emphasized the Slayers' financial problems which might reluctantly force them to retire early from their duties...

It was high time the Council did something besides issue mindless instructions and orders he felt...

Willow hesitantly agreed...If she wouldn't be in the way...And if they thought she could help...

She wouldn't mind seeing England and Europe at that...

They managed to make the changes without too much difficulty as to accommodations...As for the air flight...Amazingly enough a seat had opened on their flight...

A little gift requested by BR and courtesy of Tara and Giles...But after all, after saving the world countless times, Slayers and their dear friends rated one break, surely...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXI

Once Willow had accepted the Walthrops' invitation and learned the Council would be covering expenses...

She began to get rather excited about the trip...And with Tara's enthusiastic help, began to prepare feverishly...

The hurdle of informing her family was cleared with the cover story that, following the tragic passing of Hank Summers in Spain, Buffy's hitherto unheard from twin sister had arrived (from their Dad's place in Spain), and needing help in bringing Hank's effects home to Sunnydale, while Buffy remained with Dawn, wished her new friend Willow to accompany her back to Europe...At her expense...

As for Tara, recovered from Willow's sedative spell, she was rather excited at the thought of being "the Witch" for the gang while Willow was in Europe...And hopeful that she might help end the curse tormenting her dear one...

At the store, early next morning, the combined Sunnydale-LA gang reviewed the situation...

Minus...Willow and Tara out shopping frantically...

Plane leaving at four...

And minus one new member...Warren having had to leave after checking in to head for the office...

Someone had to keep the business going...

Keeping his end up...Throughout such a crazy couple of nights...on top of a very crazed couple of weeks...So dependably responsible...Buffy couldn't help thinking...Unlike some fellows...

She couldn't help noticing Ms. Granger was obviously thinking the same as she also watched Warren leave...

I thought she liked Giles...Buffy thought... I see Ms. Granger keeps her options open...

Giles was summing up...

Willow was better since the transfusions of Warren's artificial blood cocktail...But that was only a stop-gap...

As was the trip to Europe...

Willow would remained "corked" under Giles' spell so there would be no danger of her using her abilities against them...At least for the present...But...

They had to find and destroy Leto...Quickly...

"Could Leto follow Willow to Europe?..." Wesley states the thought on all their minds...

"Yes, but we will be watching the airport here, thanks to our extra help..." Giles nods at the LA members... "And monitoring all records of flights out of the United States to Europe...I doubt we will need to worry too much about shipping but we'll watch those reports as well...And that

information will be passed on to the Council..."

"And you're sure they can keep all flights into England under surveillance?..." Buffy asks doubtfully...

The Council's "help" has always been rather limited up to now...With the exception of its providing dear Giles of course...

"They'll keep a close watch...They're rather sensitive about new vampires entering their home ground as it is..." grins Giles...

"Of course if Dru decides to leave England?..." Angel puts in questioningly...

Spike shakes his head...

"Dru will want to fight on home ground...Until she's forced to leave...And this Leto will probably try to stay in the US until the last possible moment...Even stay in the area if he can..."

"Let's assume for now our fight with Leto will be in this country..." Giles brings them back...

"What's the best way to track him?...Gentlemen?..." he turns to the vamp boys...Who better to ask?...

"He's been keeping to Sunnydale since his transformation..." Angel notes... "Spike is probably right...He prefers the old haunts...Not much of a traveling type...Which is why he chose Willow...A familiar face..."

"Not much of a hunter..." Spike adds... "He works through others...So he'll continue to need contacts...Which could work to our benefit as well as his..."

"So it's time to put a little pressure on our more peace-loving vamps..." Basey concludes... "If they really want to continue the easy life..."

A first-rate Slayer...Spike notes with pleasure...Good to know Sis will have competent help...

And thank God my redemption came through just in time...Three of them?...What a nightmare that would have been a month ago...

"Pressure, eh..." Xander looks at Angel and Wesley...and Cordelia who grins back... "How about a little LA-style pressure?..."

"Just what I was thinking..." Angel grins at him... And back at his staff... Time to show Sunnydale's suburban vamps what life is like in the big city...

"He must have a lot of personal things here in town, items left with his family, that sort of thing..." Buffy notes... "You and Tara could make use of that, Giles..."

"So...we shall go visiting?..." Basey grins at her... "Two college students seeking the background on a legendary Sunnydale politician for their report on local political history?.."

"Well...My heart was set on documenting the Mayor's career..." Buffy smiles at her... "But..."

Now as to Dru...

Buffy was worried about BR...She tended to forget she could be and had been hurt...

Spike seconded her opinion...

Although he knew he had to end Dru's suffering...Bring the cycle to a close, once and for all...

This was Drusilla he and the Missus were going up against, not some run-of-the-mill demon face...And caution of the highest magnitude was advised...

Which was confirmed almost immediately to their horror when he suddenly collapsed...And arose with his "working" face on...

"What?..." he asks them as Xander and Anya pull back in fright... After trying to help him up...

"William?...Is something wrong?..." BR asks him gently, moving over to him slowly and carefully... No need to set him off if the chip has failed...

"What the hell are you all looking at?..." he asks them nervously as they all stare at him...Is his hair mussed or something?...

BR strokes him very gently and tells him...

Oh...Well, of course...Rather nice to know he can still generate that kind of effect on people...

But it was strange...He'd made no effort to assume his "work" face...

And he assured them, felt no sudden especial urge to kill...

Good...thought Xander...Now if he'd just retract that face...

He can't...Very strange...And damned bad timing if they're to fly out this afternoon...

"You ever have this problem?..." Buffy Rebecca hopefully asks Angel...

"Not without a reason..." Angel replies looking at Spike...The same thought occurring to both...Dru loves to have her fun...

"Are you allergic to anything?..." Anya asks helpfully...

"Dru...I'm allergic to Dru..." Spike sighs... "This is her little game, I'm sure of it..."

He looks at BR sadly...Dru's little reminder of the space still between them...

She kisses the demon face...

Angel watches and looks at Buffy...The things this woman is capable of...

Tara and Willow arrived a hour or so later to find them still trying to help Spike...

It was a fairly simple cursing Dru had used...Basic Voodoo 101...She never had had the patience for learning real spell-casting magic, just her share of basic tricks that when combined with her natural ability and the right equipment could be devastating...

With a little guidance from Giles and the still-corked Willow, Tara lifted the curse...

Willow agreed that she'd better pack some of Giles' amulets and anti-spell remedies...And felt better now about her role in going along...As did the rest of the gang...

She might be restrained as to use of her powers but an experienced Wiccan adviser/researcher was definitely going to be an asset to the Walthrops...

At the strong urging of all the gang, the Europe-bound members headed to their respective homes for some badly needed rest before their flight...

BR was relieved to see that Spike had no ill after-effects from Dru's little trick...And managed to get him to sleep...

[Suggested theme...Addicted to Love...]

Robert Palmer nodded to Spike...And waved him into position in front of the line of Buffies...

Who were anything but docile...

Not all that unlike the dream Spike had told Buffy Rebecca about...The one he'd had the night before her "birth"...But that had taken place in a poetry class...

"...Gonna have to face it...You're Addicted to Love..." the song blared from speakers as Palmer continued...

The Buffies gave a united glare at Spike...And began shoving him along their line...Each one singing a different line and wacking him to the next as they did so...Palmer smiling back at the battered Spike as he staggered along the line...And suddenly pulling his head off to reveal...

Angel, grinning and nodding at him...And continuing to do an excellent Robert Palmer...

Spike was reaching the end of the line...

"Your hands shake...Your teeth grind..." A Buffy slapped Spike along...

"Another kiss...And you are mine..." The next sang to him...

"Might well face it...You're Addicted to Love..." they all sing as he reaches the last...And all pull their heads off to reveal...

Drusilla...

As quickly as they are revealed, all but one disappears...And that one faces Spike...

"Silly boy..." she morphs back into Buffy and stakes him...Angel waving his hands slightly and shrugging...

"Tough luck, kid...That's redemption for you..."

Buffy Rebecca awoke in horror...

And reached over to Spike to find...Dru again...

"Our tie is unbreakable..." she smiled at BR...

Who finally awoke...screaming...To find Spike watching her nervously...

He'd never heard of robots crying out in their nightmares...But then his sleeping experience with robots, especially human-souled ones, was limited...

The Walthrops agreed it was best to discuss BR's dream with Willow on board and Giles later...

The gang was nervous enough about the trip...Especially Angel who still felt guilty about failing previously with Dru...

They all had quite enough on their hands with Leto and his crew...

With great relief they boarded the plane and left on schedule...

Almost immediately a minor disaster struck "Dr." Walthrop...

He'd never flown before...Always by ship...

Always?...BR asked...

Well, he'd gone up once in 1917...As a lark during the Great War...It hadn't bothered him then...

And he'd tanked up before the flight, thinking he might not get a chance for sometime...

Airsick?...He was airsick?...

She could just imagine the effect that Spike tossing a stomach full of blood, even her artificial cocktail, would have on the flight attendants...

Can you spell emergency landing?...

"Sweetie, can you make it to the bathroom?..." she urged...And half-dragged the staggering vampire along...Willow glanced sympathetically at him as they passed her...

"Airsick..." BR sheepishly explained to the attendant as she and Spike swayed down the aisle...

She noted that one passenger was watching them rather too...Vampire?... No...human... But...

One couldn't be too careful...Wolfram-Hart, Leto, some relative of the deranged and defunct Dr. Severn all might have human agents in their service keeping an eye on them...

Even Dru herself might have stooped to using humans...

She concentrated to keep the woman's face in mind...

Not all that difficult with a supplemental back-up memory...

Unfortunately the nearest restroom was occupied...Fortunately for them the occupants were a vampire and his victim...

Unfortunate for him...

Spike watched his Missus conduct the dazed victim back to the nearest attendant...A serious shaving accident?...Well, at least with her innocent Buffy-stare the attendant would buy that she believed the fellow's excuse...

Poor honey, he thought...No rest for Slayers...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXII

With the Walthrops and their expert on witchcraft and magic safely away...

The hunt for Leto began in earnest...

With a repeat visit round the Sunnydale haunts that night by Angel, Wesley, Xander, Cordy, and Warren...

Emphasizing the Slayers' displeasure with the recent turn of events...But their continuing willingness to allow the peace process to follow its mutually beneficial course...If a certain treacherous fellow could be located...

At the shop, Giles and Tara worked on possible methods of finding Leto...

While Buffy and Basey stepped up their patrolling...

Just to let the Sunnydale vamp population know that the Slayers' forgiving mood had its limits...

Willow had joined Spike, Buffy Rebecca having gone to conk out in Willow's seat...

She snored...And was well aware of it...Dawn having taped Buffy for proof long ago...

But she preferred to believe her hubs was not yet aware of her lack of perfection in this regard...

So since Willow wasn't sleepy...Would she mind?...

The eminent "cybergenius" had recovered from his attack...

"A little town called Brusset...quite a ways from London..." he told Willow, who had asked him where he and his family came from..If he remembered...

A picturesque, quaint little English country town?...Willow had inquired hopefully...

"Only if you find slag heaps picturesque..." Spike replied... "A hell-hole of ignorance if I remember it rightly...The men, in general...dim-witted, brutal louts all about, the women...battered, consumptive or eternally pregnant, shattered husks...Almost no educational opportunities...A few twitty, class-bound snots running what little social or cultural life was

available...The wealthy landowner lording over us all...A real 19th century English town..."

Of course it might be nicer now...

And his family?...

Obviously Spike had some good memories of his mum...He'd thought enough of her to remember her favorite tune through the years and give it to BR...

"She gave me everything I ever had...And a chance to escape that hell-hole..." he told Willow...

"Sent me to Cambridge on the proceeds of a life of factory work, scrubbing, mending..."

He smiled at her sadly...

"And of course you've seen the results of her efforts...But, thank God, she died before my first year was up...And never knew..."

Was there anyone else?...

"My little sister, Amelia...and my brother Philip..." he clearly did not want to discuss his family further and Willow refrained from pressing...

She looked over at the snoring BR...Who was attracting some attention by now...

"So...how's married life?..." she grinned at Spike...

"I'm afraid to sleep at night...I might wake up and it will all be a dream..." he looked at her seriously...Willow patted his hand...

"Besides...who could sleep in the middle of that?..." he rolled his eyes at the snoring BR, grinning...

In addition to information on "Dr." Walthrop's family connections, Sir Harold informed Dru that he had learned more about the Slayer and the reasons behind Darla's failure...

Dru was quite correct in what she had told Sir Harold about the battle...His agents confirmed that there were additional Slayers in Sunnydale now...One, a new face, understandably to replace the briefly deceased Buffy Summers, but Dru was right...apparently...another Buffy Summers

existed...Enormously powerful by all accounts...

Dru remembered the powerful, empty-souled Buffy who had confronted her and Grandmother even as they tried to "rescue" the vampiral Buffy all too well...Unknown to her, Warren's temporary Buffy-April hybrid...

Sir Harold's informants could provide no explanations for a second Buffy's appearance...Perhaps it had been part of the method used to save Summers...Perhaps something else...

But in any case Dru's activities against the Slayer and her vampire had become of even greater importance to the slowly regenerating Wolfram-Hart combine...

And Sir Harold's information was likewise important enough to cause Dru to reconsider her battle plan...If Buffy was somehow no longer fully human...err...fully superhuman...Methods other than thrall might be called for...

Fortunately, she had been considering some new options in any case...New vistas opened up by the discovery that her boy had relatives living...

She therefore had one other favor to ask of her dear partner...She needed a little medical advice...

Leto's world was crumbling...

A day ago, he had been the king/pope of Sunnydale's vamp population, honored by his fellows, even befriended by the Slayers...

Now, a single headstrong act had plunged him from his seat...Driven him to hide among the reeking low-life of Sunnydale's underside...

Friends were falling away from him by the minute, anxious to maintain a little credit with the mighty Slayers...Soon his very head would be sought by his own kind, he knew...

Yet, even as he sensed Willow slipping away from him, both in terms of distance and emotion, he could not give up the idea and hope of her...So he stayed, hoping to find someway to locate her and to win her back...Though if he stayed his destruction was only a matter of time...

And oddest and saddest thing of all...There was a small part of him that was somehow glad that she had, at least for now, escaped the fate he planned for her...

Love's a bitch...

Dr. Henry Jones...elderly English countryside medical practitioner, residing in semi-retirement near Spike's home town of Brusset, England... aka Hans Grezner, former SS colonel and dear comrade-in-arms of Sir Harold Milliken, aka Ernest Gruber-Schemm...had a late visitor...

Sent with the recommendation of his dear friend, the head of the powerful Wolfram-Hart, Europe law firm...

Grezner regarded her...As former medical advisor to the Nazi SS Death-Head Legion, Vampiral, he had no difficulty determining what he was dealing with...

A vampiress, no doubt...A powerful one, to have such connections...

Well, Sir Harold had been generous over the years to his old comrades...With Wolfram-Hart's life-extending secrets as well as other things...

And Dr. Jones was not without his own protections...

"Well, my dear miss...What can I do for you?..."

"My friend...Sir Harold...referred me to you..." Dru began shyly...

She explained that she needed the services of a truly great neurosurgeon...Who had performed experiments on all types of brains...Even vampiral ones...

Her little boy had this problem...

The check of haunts by Angel and most of the gang having turned up little but vague promises to "look out" for Leto, Buffy and Basey had decided to begin their study of George Letos' political career and personal life in the morning...

Angel, Wes, and Cordy would make a hunt of major and minor resting places in the daylight...A prospect which Angel was looking forward to...

While Giles and Tara would continue their research...

Buffy reminded Cordy to keep a constant watch on Angel's ring finger while they were out...

Xander and Warren would join in as soon as work allowed and Dawn was reluctantly promised the chance to "help" Giles and Tara after school...Which offer had immediately to be expanded to include young Leroy, now enrolled in Sunnydale Elementary...

Before calling it a night, Xander, pledged by Willow to maintain "Operation Distraction", as causally as possible with Anya nudging him, quietly suggested to Warren that he ask Buffy to dinner the next evening...

Nothing special, just as a friend...She could use a moment away from the gang at home as well as here in the store...

Seeing Warren somewhat nervous at the prospect, Xander desperately grabbed at the first idea and suggested he ask Giles to take Basey along...

Anya looked at him...Giles and the new Slayer?...The year younger than Buffy new Slayer?...Aren't there laws about such things?...Or at least there should be...

Warren thought it a great idea...Dinner with Ms. Summers alone would have been a little overwhelming for him...

Xander wisely amended it by suggesting that Warren ask Ms. Granger to come as well as Buffy and only then ask Giles along...To a friendly dinner with the Slayers...De-emphasizing the "double date" aspects...

Wish we were going Anya thought...This will be interesting...

Spike was rather pleased to note that Willow seemed exhausted...He'd be worried, given

the circumstances if she were bright-eyed and chipper at this time of night...

Angel's transfusions had done her considerable good...But "Dr." Walthrop was sure it was the knowing her reason for her condition which had most braced her...

Red, he knew from experience, was a tough fighter when challenged...

But he also knew she was afraid...Quite a healthy and understandable fear actually...

And he sensed that she had been waiting to make a request of him...Which he expected...But not quite in the form it took...

Willow knew she might yet die and transform...She knew also that Giles would if possible try to repeat their success with resurrection...But...

She was well aware of how narrowly they'd squeaked by with Buffy...Who had had a sister's soul helping to hold her demon down and her human soul in this world...

Willow would not have that help...And it was very likely that, just as she had warned Angel, the demon within would throw her soul into limbo and win the fight to control the resurrected human body...

If that happened...Her friends might well be in worse danger than if vampire Willow were born...The demon would know everything she did and would attempt to deceive them as the human Willow until able to access her abilities...

It was after all a part of Willow...Just as Buffy's had been...

They would be reluctant to act against a vampire Willow...Against a human one, no matter how many times she warned them, no matter how evil it revealed itself to be...They'd never act in time even to save themselves...

And Buffy Rebecca, unable to kill humans, would be even more helpless...

If a demon ruled in the human body, only one person could sense its presence quickly enough to destroy it...

Spike...With his demon-sensitive chip...

"You expect me to kill you...as a human?..." Even for Spike this was a little shocking...Staking vamp Willow he could consider at the outside, if all else failed...but to kill human Willow...

"You might be the only hope they'd have... " Willow looked at him...

"My chip?..." he reminded her...

"You've crashed through it before...And I wouldn't be human, not really..."

She put her hand on his...

"I know you'd be risking everything you've won...The gang would never be able to forgive you...Even if they accepted what had to be done...And I know even Buffy Rebecca would have a hard time with it..."

She grinned...

"But Walthrop...you owe me...Big time..."

True, he knew...He owed Willow everything...She'd saved BR for him...Not to mention restraining Buffy on the countless occasions when she would have gladly staked him but for Red's sympathy for him...

"If I'm convinced...that you're not the real Willow...I'll do whatever is necessary to stop the thing using your body...in whatever form..." he told her quietly... "But the others will find Leto in time...And if not, Giles will succeed..."

She nodded...But they couldn't expect to win every battle...

"Why not?..." Spike snorted... "You sound like me a month ago..."

But he promised her again that he would do what was necessary...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXIII

Despite his recent lamentable lapse in decorum, Leto took it as a point of honor to uphold the spirit of the peace...And refrained from attacks on humans...

As Spike had noted to the gang he was not a hunter by nature in any case...

And after all, the peace was still his doing...the single proud achievement of his undead existence...The one truly worthy gift he could offer Willow...Even if he had done much to tear it apart...

He knew the drop-off sites for Warren's blood cocktail better than anyone else...And was still able to slip in and take what he needed...But...

Sooner or later he would be turned in...

And face the inevitable judgment of the Slayers...

However there was still another avenue to pursue...

The Slayers and their friends were not the only ones in Sunnydale seeking information from the vampire community...

Most of the plane's passengers were out by the time Willow traded seats again with BR...

How was Will holding up?...Spike told BR of their conversation...She frowned...Maybe common sense but not the most positive attitude...

Will came back before she could say anything...

"That guy is staring at us...Gives me the creeps..." she indicated a middle-aged jowly man down the aisle who was scowling at them... "You know, I've seen him somewhere..."

"That's that TV preacher..." Buffy Rebecca told her... "Preacher Pat...with the show on Channel 4..."

"The one who managed to insult all Scotland last year?..." Spike regarded her...

He had never asked her about religious beliefs...He'd assumed the Summers were...mainstream, more or less...She didn't by any chance?...

"He's fun to watch ranting..." BR smiled...

Phew...One never knew with Slayers...They did tend toward fanaticism at times...

"Think he senses witches?..." Willow asked, a little nervous...

"I think that one only senses cash..." Spike smiled at her...

"He's coming over, I think..." BR sighed... "Be nice..." she hissed at the hubs...Who looked innocently back at her...

Spike grinned reassuringly at Will...Really just what the doctor ordered to get Willow out of her current funk...Nothing to take one's mind off one's troubles like dealing with a crazed TV evangelist...

"Nice Anglican-raised boy here...Of course if you need his ministrations, ladies, I'll do my best to get him to stay..."

"Nice Jewish girl, here...Well Jewish-Wiccan girl..." Willow grinned back...

"I am going to be very angry with you in a moment, Spike..." BR hissed again...

"Shouldn't like that, love..." he grinned... "Best behavior, vamp's honor..." And raised his hand...

Preacher Pat, famed TV evangelist, businessman, and political force, was flying to Europe to save souls and his business interests in Scotland from the dark forces which had expelled him previously...By accusations of fraud and corruption...

He had noted the Walthrops and their friend down the aisle from him...The only people still awake currently...And decided it was time to strike up a conversation...

"Have you found your personal savior in our Lord?..." Preacher Pat intruded...

"I'm sure he's a fine fellow...But my personal savior is Buffy Rebecca Summer-Walthrop..." Spike nods at his blushing bride...

Preacher Pat was not happy...When He makes a personal effort to save you...

BR tried to be nice...And glared Spike into tolerably good behavior until the TV

preacher distributed free copies of his latest book to them and returned to his seat...

Willow returned to her seat...

And dreamed that Preacher Pat had condemned her as a heretic and witch to burn...However Sean Connery, his arch-nemesis, happened to be on board the plane..Determined to avenge Scotland's good name...Just as the fires were lit...Connery in his best Bond style, tossed PP through a tiny cabin window to his death ala Goldfinger...

A happy ending...Will slept peacefully...

BR looked for the woman she had noted earlier as "watching" them...Asleep...

Pat continued to watch them from his seat...As did several of his staff...

After all, as a member of Wolfram-Hart's executive board he had an strong interest in their destruction...And so, being on the same flight anyway, had agreed to assist in keeping them under observation...

BR suggested they stroll the plane and check things out...See if they sensed any potential problems...Spike was happy to stretch...

After they covered a good part of the plane, she slipped them unobserved into the cargo hold by gently manipulating the door lock...

"And we are looking for?..." the eminent "cybergenius" was puzzled...

"A few minutes...alone..." she looked at him...the blushing bride genuinely blushing...And smiling...

"Why Buffy Rebecca Summers-Walthrop..." he started to say...As she shut and locked the door...

Phil, aka "the Voice" clucked sympathetically at his "boy"...Bad karma definitely on that last girl, son...

He sighed...things had been going so well...But he understood, of course...

Just a little too impetuous there...Well, it happens...

But some real consequences on this one...

He would really like to help him...But...Two, maybe even three...count them, three...Slayers were on his trail...

But Leto only wanted information...About the Wolfram-Hart operatives who'd been skulking about town, seeking for Slayer info...Whom Leto had held off during his glory days, thinking they might provide him an ace in the hole with the Slayers...Who would doubtless have been pleased to be given details as to a powerful enemy's activities in their backyard...

Sadly, that was no longer an option for him now...But the same folks might be interested in information he had to offer...

His "dad" agreed to do what he could to arrange a meeting...

Buffy Rebecca's and hubs' idyll came to an abrupt end when the young woman who been "watching" them carefully forced the cargo hold door open...Opened with the skill of a master craftsman...

She cleared her throat rather loudly...And called...

"Dr. Walthrop?...Ms. Summers...er ?..."

BR and Spike emerged sheepishly but on guard from behind cartons...

"I thought I should introduce myself when I noticed you were heading here...I am Amelia Walthrop-Hunt...Dr. Walthrop's grandniece, if you include several greats..."

They were speechless...Now that you mention it, BR noted, there was a slight resemblance...

"I am also a standing member of the Watchers' Council...It was felt that I should be the one to escort you into England..."

Ms. Walthrop-Hunt provided several documents testifying to her association with the Council...She was pleased to see Ms. Summers, er...Summers-Walthrop...so sharp...

My grandniece?...Well, great-great, etc...Spike was floored and continued so for quite some time...Not to mention guilt-riddled, shamed, desperately curious, and rather pleased...He had family...

Well, his sister, Amelia, had done the work...

"Naturally, considering my ancestor's...past career...I thought it best to avoid contacts in the past, so I never requested duty in Sunnydale..." Ms. Walthrop-Hunt told them...And regarded her distinguished relative coolly...

"But as Mr. Giles informed us and we learned from our own sources, there has been quite a change in the situation..."

Pretty girl...Spike thought...Amelia's eyes definitely...if he was remembering them correctly...And absolutely right to be reserved towards him...Surprised she didn't stake him immediately...Family honor and all that...

Must have been a terrible embarrassment to them all...he thought guiltily...

"You're quite right..." BR replied... "There has been quite a change...Your ancestor has won his redemption...all by his own efforts..."

Supportive spouse there...He couldn't help beaming a little...

"And you two really are married?...That wasn't a deception for Drusilla?..." Ms. Walthrop-Hunt regarded them carefully...

Well, as legally married as Spike's and Buffy Rebecca's phony papers would permit...But if you excepted that...

"Married, for real, and extremely happy of it..." Spike replied... "But my wife is the source of any redemption I may have been granted..."

"Mr. Giles gave us only the sketchiest details about you, Ms. Summers-Walthrop?...If I understand correctly, you are a robotic copy of the original Ms. Summers?..."

Well, at least she was in contact with Giles for sure...BR realized...

She nodded to Ms. Walthrop-Hunt...

"But I have the equivalent of a human brain...And, my sister and I have more or less agreed, the soul of a Buffy Summers..."

"Remarkable...And you are the defeater of the Goddess of Glory and Victory...Who would have ended the world just a few weeks ago...Amazing..." she looked at BR thoughtfully...

"William played a big role in that battle and likewise in my sis' resurrection...and mine.." BR told her firmly, noting that she was avoiding speaking directly to Spike...

"The Council has for the moment accepted Mr. Giles' testimony as to William the Bloody's current status...Else he would not be allowed to re-enter England..." she looked at BR...

Like I believe the Council could keep Spike out if he wanted to come...BR thought...They sure didn't do much to stop Dru...

"Yet I have noted that both you and your friend, Ms. Rosenberg, are concealing bite scars..." Ms. Walthrop-Hunt pointed out...

Sharp-eyed, that girl...Spike thought, rather pleased...

Wish I could have gone back in the biotank for one more regeneration before we left, BR thought...Would have healed that thing right up...Too bad...Especially when it's right here...in some of these cartons...in pieces...

She sighed...How to explain...And tried...

"My friend was attacked by another vampire...She's recovering now...As for me, well, I needed to give the appearance of thrall for us to locate that vampire before we left Sunnydale..."

"Mr. Giles alerted us to Ms. Rosenberg's condition..." Ms. Walthrop-Hunt replied... "But not yours, Ms. Walthrop..."

Oops, forgot to mention that to Giles...BR thought nervously...He might have let us know we'd be under Council surveillance so soon through...I mean we knew it would start once we reached England...But...

"My wife prefers Summers-Walthrop..." Spike noted... "As for her being in thrall...I think you ought to be able to confirm or disprove that...As a Council member..."

"I could...If Ms. Summers-Walthrop will allow me a few moments alone..."

"But I'd also like to know how you're so well-informed..." Spike added... "We've only learned about Willow in the past couple of days...And Giles has barely had time to speak to the Council about it..."

She smiled, in spite of herself...Her infamous ancestor was living up to his reputation in some ways at least...And he was clearly determined to protect his new bride against any possible danger...

"I maintain constant contact with the Council via satellite link...If you like I can set it up here...We can even arrange a call to your Mr. Giles..." She indicated her metal briefcase which she had brought in with her...

The Council has entered the modern world, I see...thought BR...It might have been nice if they'd ever passed along a few extra aids like this to Giles once in while...

"Please..." said Spike, pleasantly...He was taking no chances...

And he knew how Dru's mind worked...Any relatives of his would be high on her list of priorities in England...

Dr. Jones...aka SS Colonel Dr. Hans Grezner, formerly known as the Butcher of Belsen-Belsen, was intrigued by Dru's description of Spike's chip...

He was familiar with the secret work of Dr. Margaret Walsh and her team, having been utilized as a consultant on several occasions...When no questions were asked about an English neurosurgeon's "expertise" with Nazi neurological experiments...

Yes, he had told Dru, he was familiar with that type of chip...Used in antiseizure studies as well as in demon research...Yes, he thought he could disable it, given a proper amount of time and place to work...

Dru had emphasized the interest of their mutual friend, Sir Harold in such "research"...And that she, with his help and blessing would provide both time and place...

Dr. Jones was only too happy to put his services at their disposal...

Dru had two other requests...She was paying some calls in Brusset...Was it possible that Dr. Jones might suggest a quiet place for her to stay during the day?...

He was pleased to offer her the use of his home...Large, with only a few servants...

And any friend of his old war comrade...

And, finally, she asked...Did he by any chance know any members of the Walthrop family living in Brusset or the surrounding area?...Sir Harold's information had been sketchy...

Sir Harold had made a similar request of him earlier...And as a matter of fact, there was a rather prominent Walthrop family living just outside Brusset...

They'd done quite well in industry after the First World War...And acquired a couple of large homes in the lower valley...

Related to a certain tragically vanished young poet...and infamous vampire...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXIV

Mutual satisfaction...

-Hunt had, via her computer and satellite link, connected with the Watchers' Council and allowed BR to speak with and see several members whom she recognized

...And to call Giles who confirmed that he had indeed updated the Council immediately

after the Walthrops' and Willow's departure...

Spike agreed it was reasonable to accept Ms. Walthrop-Hunt's story...While resolving to remain cautious...

For her part, BR had allowed Ms. Walthrop-Hunt to examine her bite scar throughly, test her reflexes, and perform a slight spell test to sense thrall effects which Willow had pronounced, after Spike had gone to call her in, a safe one...

Of course a robot might respond differently to thrall, but all in all the Watcher was satisfied...

Willow was as startled as they to find that Spike had living relatives...One on the Council no less...

But why then?...she couldn't help asking the Watcher...To leave her great-great...great?...granduncle?...running around as William the Bloody?...

"I'm not a Slayer..." Ms. Walthrop-Hunt replied to her question... "When I learned about my ancestor's...activities...The only way to help stop him seemed to be to devote myself to the Council's work...And they frown on personal crusades against vampiral or demon relatives..."

"But..." she looked at Spike... "If the opportunity had come up, I would have done what I could within my limited powers to help him find peace..."

"And it seemed to have worked out for the best..." she smiled at BR... "If all continues to go well..."

"It will..." BR told her, firmly... "Does the Council fully realize that ?...And that I and my husband will be the ones to decide if he ever needs... 'assistance'?..."

Willow was a little startled to hear her say it...Spike seemed unfazed...Had they discussed this?...Settled it between them?...That BR would 'assist' Spike if Walthrop ever lost control again?...

The Slayer's Gift...Ready and waiting whenever Walthrop needed it...

Buffy and Basey had determined that the Sunnydale Historical Society had kept some effects of George Letos, beloved Sunnydale citizen and political leader, at their offices at the library...

No relatives remained in town...

On their way over to the library, they discussed their upcoming "date" with Warren and Giles...

Not a "date" really, of course...Buffy noted...Just a friendly, quiet dinner in a local restaurant, away from the hustle and bustle of the past few days...Angel would likewise be taking his staff, Xander, and Anya out before their next night tour of the town haunts...Breaking the group up for

a little more relaxed atmosphere...

"I'd like to dress up a little..." Basey noted... "Except for Buffy Rebecca's wedding, I haven't really decked out in over a year..."

Besides, she grinned...She'd like to think of it as a date even if Buffy wouldn't...

And she had a serious question for her colleague...She'd noted Buffy's affection for Giles, and her interest in Warren...

Now of course with their joint return to college, made possible in Basey's case by Giles' insistence that the Council get off its tail and do something for the Slayers, even if it involved manipulations of her California residency status,... there would be new...opportunities...

But, she hardly found it likely they'd meet any one there to match these two gallant fellows...Each charming, intelligent, gentle...with unique qualities...Both...proven heroes...willing at a moment's notice to lay down their lives for them...

Of course she'd say three or even four...But Xander was, well...attached... And Wesley seemed involved with Cordy...

And of course, poor Angel...A shame...Anyway...

You don't find guys like these falling out of trees...

She'd spent a long time alone, except for her brother, dodging Sentinus' surviving minions...Not to mention those surviving family members of her own who'd wanted to lock her away due to her period of strange behavior during her thrall state after her parents' murder...

And in the Midwest you learn to grab a good man on those occasions when one passes through your little town...

So far as she could see you couldn't do better than Giles or Warren and she was more than ready for a little companionship...So she wanted to know...

Which one?...thought Buffy...

A little courtesy extended to the Greatest Slayer of All Time, human, by her admiring new colleague...

Angel and his LA team were scouring Sunnydale's resting places by day for Leto or a clue as to his whereabouts... A nervous Cordelia taking Buffy's warnings to watch Angel's ring to heart...

Despite the serious situation, Angel couldn't help enjoying his daylight stroll...There was really so much to be content about...

He'd never fully realized what a pretty little place Sunnydale was...And the knowledge that Spike had won redemption and his own Buffy not only reduced a little of his guilt but had actually given him a certain degree of new hope...Especially after Buffy's conversation with him the other

night...

And she still loved him, in spite of the BR memories of Spike she'd received during their merging...

Even if she was going to take up with that soldier boy Riley again or with Warren the "cybergenius"...(Angel having learned and approved of "Operation Distraction")...There was yet a potential Buffy Summers out there for him...Spike, of all people, had assured him of it in their

talks in his apartment and he believed it...

After all the current Buffy Summers was not immortal...He'd always known that he might have to seek her soul again, in a later reincarnation...

If she found 40, 60, 80 years of happiness with some nice fellow in this lifetime...He could be big about it...

Buffy and Dawn had been saved...When both might have been lost forever...

And Wolfram-Hart was still reeling from the blow of Lilah's revelations of the firm's criminal activities, courtesy of Willow...

He had confidence in his "grandson" and BR...If anyone could help Dru they

could...human Drusilla might well be at peace soon...One more source of guilt partially

lifted...

And he had yet a few more days to spend with Buffy and Dawn and his old friends,...He had not fully realized how much he'd missed them...And time spent in daylight, no less...

True, Willow's situation was distressing but they had already gone a long way toward preventing her destruction...

It might be a long, long time to complete his work, his path to redemption, and win his own Buffy, but he had more hope than he'd had in quite a long time...

All in all, a lot to be content about...and a very nice homecoming to Sunnydale...

One of Preacher Pat's staff returned with the news that he could not locate the missing Walthrops or their friend...Pat was not unduly alarmed...After all, even vampires could not leave an aircraft at 30,000 feet...

A few minutes later Willow and BR returned, Willow resuming her nap in her own seat...

Spike paused to speak with his relative...He needed to know what to expect from the Council...

"I don't expect they've completely accepted me as a reformed character?..." he asks Ms. Walthrop-Hunt as she packs up her equipment...

"The fact that I'm willing to spend a moment alone with you in this hold, even with the door open and a Slayer with three times normal speed down the hall, does indicate we do give some credence to the testimony your friends have given..." she smiles...

"And there have been rare cases of recovery of humanity before you...Though

never in one so old...We have a set procedure which allows for you to be treated as

a guiltless new individual...Though of course you must be watched carefully...probably

forever..."

Spike nods...Wise and sensible precaution...

"But why the intensive surveillance?...They didn't panic like this just because Dru entered England...There are plenty of vamps in England to deal with already...What is it that they want?..."

"Obviously, we want to better our relations with our Buffy Summers Slayers...They have been strained over the years...And we actually do view Miss Drusilla as a serious threat...But had no way to track her outside of you..." she looks at him thoughtfully... A strange mix this William

the Bloody...To achieve redemption through love of a woman, even a Slayer, even a robotic Slayer...Remarkable, if it's true...

"And?..." Spike waits...

"Ms. Summers-Walthrop defeated the Goddess of Glory and Victory...We're aware of the extent of Glory's defeat despite Mr. Giles' hesitance in giving us the details...Obviously we have a powerful new and potentially immortal weapon in the fight against evil...The Council is

determined to learn all it can about the new Buffy and to keep her with us in the fight..."

She grins, a little of Walthrop's wry look in her face...

"Which is why we're willing to handle your situation so delicately...In spite of your crimes...For now..."

Plausible, Spike thinks...And suggests they return before anyone finds them...

He watches her heading back...

But I will be watching you, great-great grandniece and anyone else the Council sends...

Just as Giles suggested when the Council seemed a little too willing to accept his demands...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXV

Angel and his crew had come up empty in their daylight search...

Leto, wherever he'd got to, was well-hidden...If he really was still in town at all...

Meeting at the shop with the rest, they agreed that more "pressure" would have to be applied...

Giles informed the group that BR had reached him from the plane rather early that morning...She'd been contacted by a Council member...Who happened to be a relative of Spike's...

Wesley was especially surprised...One of Spike's people on the Council all this time?...And they'd never told them?...

Well, understandable from a certain point of view...

"She used her married name of Hunt on the Council..." Giles explained... "Although they were aware of her family connections...And kept them in reserve in case they might be of use against William the Bloody in an emergency..."

"Use?..." asked Xander... "Would the old Spike have stopped if his relatives asked him to?..."

"Oh...You mean for blood curses, voodoo, bait...that sort of thing..." Anya noted...

"Bait?..." Tara asked...

"Some vamps really love to nibble on the family...Draws them in like honey...Kind of creepy but you know vamps..." Anya replied...

"Yes, well, Anya has got it right...For voodoo, magic, that sort of thing...Relatives can be quite useful...Even if vampires have no real attachment to them in an emotional sense..." Giles

"Except Will...Now, anyway..." Dawn corrected, supportive sis-in-law, research assistant to Tara...

"And Angel..." she added, winning a smile from him...

"Absolutely..." Buffy agreed...

The Summers defend their in-laws and boyfriends, no exceptions...

The rest of their flight was uneventful and the Walthrops and Willow arrived at Heathrow Airport in London on schedule...

Ms. Walthrop-Hunt promised to keep in touch...For now she would be their primary contact with the Council...

They were now, at last, on Dru's turf...But for the moment, the Walthrops and their beloved guest were tourists...

On the Council of Watchers' nickel...

And they intended to make full use of it...With William Walthrop as enthusiastic, if somewhat time-befuddled, guide...

A long, long overdue reward for all Slayers, particularly the world-saving Greatest Slayer of All Time...And her devoted assistants...

Although Preacher Pat's business interests in Scotland were pressing, he found time to report into Sir Harold's office regarding the Walthrops and their friend...

Sir Harold was appreciative...As he knew Drusilla would be...

And he was intrigued to learn that the Slayer's red-haired friend, Ms. Rosenberg was with the Walthrops...Especially as he had seen the security tape taken from the Wolfram-Hart, LA building cameras...Showing William the Bloody, accompanied by a certain red-haired young woman...Who had thrown the 25th annual meeting of the worldwide board of WH into considerable confusion...

And whom Dru had told him had played some role in Buffy Summers' resurrection...

Most useful...He thanked his dear friend...And arranged to keep the Walthrops under constant surveillance...

Giles had not fully realized the implications of Warren's invitation to join him and the Slayers at dinner...At least not until he saw Buffy and Basey decked out in their finery and looking...

Really looking...

Of course it was all in the line of duty...Giving the Slayers a chance to relax and enjoy themselves without the bustle of the past week's events...

Nothing to be nervous about... Of course, young Warren seems a little...tense...

And this particular place does seem a bit on the romantic, intimate side...

Complete with dancing...Which Buffy took advantage of rather quickly, pulling Warren along...

Basey preferred to talk a bit...She was so fascinated by Giles' past exploits...And England...

His activities must leave him little social time... she noted...

Giles admitted that he was at times unable to get out much...But he managed quite well...He admired the Slayers for their ability to deal with the restrictions on their free time...

A Watcher's life must be...very lonely at times...she went on...

Well...

Warren found Buffy politely keeping him in the lead...Barely...

Spike's lessons were a big help, although he had trouble beyond the basic waltz step...

With all his work keeping up the business...A wonderful business, helping people with artificial organs and so forth...And all the help he'd been giving to her...He must be so pressed for time...Buffy noted...

Not much social time at all...

Well, of course, she herself must have troubles in that regard...Warren noted to her...

A cybernetist who assists in Slaying activities must be...very lonely at times...she went on...

Well...

Warren and Giles...Game in the crosshairs of two Slayers...

Leto was introduced to the agent of Wolfram-Hart directing surveillance in Sunnydale...

He explained his situation and offered to divulge what he had on Ms. Summers and her twin...

In exchange for information and assistance regarding Ms. Summers friend, Ms. Rosenberg...Whom Leto had learned had gone to England with the Walthrops...

The agent was curious, but skeptical...They already knew the Slayer had a mysterious twin, even more powerful than her sister...Trained abroad it was rumored...

Did they know who specifically had resurrected Ms. Summers?...Leto asked...And the unique nature of her twin?...

The agent thought some information on Ms. Rosenberg might be obtainable...And if Leto's info was useful...

Buffy could see Giles getting somewhat nervous under Ms. Granger's increasingly focused attention...

She guided Warren back to the table...And suggested he take Basey around the floor once...

She wanted a chat with her dear Watcher...

Giles was grateful...But Buffy noticed he did follow Ms. Granger as she danced with Warren...

Why Rupert Giles...

Angel and the rest of the gang, excepting Tara and Dawn, were back to the Raven's Hair, peacemaker Leto's old place, now supposedly under new management...The former owner having had to leave rather quickly...

The semi-demon barkeep was all smiles...But sadly couldn't tell them much...The former boss hadn't let him in on a lot...Vamps tend toward keeping their privates private, you know...

Angel nodded and put on his working face while grabbing the barkeep's head...And pulling him under the bar to the rear...Perhaps he needed a little massage to help him think...Surely he remembered a little more about his boss' favorite haunts...resting places...friends... The boss must keep in contact with some old pals...

Wes, Xander, and Cordy causally blocked Angel's conversation from view...While Anya happily took drink orders...The barkeep being occupied...

The barkeep's memory having improved under Angel's manipulations, he suggested they might wish to see Leto's dear sire, the famous "Voice" aka Phil...

Address?...Why, sure...He remembered the address...

Angel thanked him for his excellent service...And left a generous tip...

"Thanks..." the barkeep told Anya as she passed him the receipts from her temporary barmaid's stint... She'd actually done a pretty brisk business...

Dru was disappointed to learn on her tour of Brusset by night that one of the two major Walthrop families in the area had left on holiday...For at least a month...

However, upon reflection she realized it was not a bad thing that their house, a rather beautiful country estate was empty and "available"...

And one family of Walthrops was in town...

She arranged for several more of her human minions from her building in London to come out to join her...

The house would need some preparation for Spike's and Buffy's visit...

And she wanted to be able to properly entertain her "children"...

Sir Harold was only too happy to provide additional staff...

Leto's information, given to him by his beloved Willow while she was in a "cooperative" mood, was judged quite valuable...

The new Buffy Summers was a robotic copy of the original...with a human soul...

And Ms. Rosenberg, gentle, little Willow was the powerful instrument of Buffy Summers' resurrection...Not to mention the near destruction of Wolfram-Hart, America...

And she was still under Leto's shadow...Could, with a little assistance, be enlisted in their cause...

While the new amazingly powerful Mrs. Walthrop had a slight flaw, an amusing one really...

She could not kill human beings...Even the most evil agents of WH...

Not only was Leto's information valuable...His continued good health was now of some importance to WH...

Sir Harold, on review of the agent's urgent report, concurred with his conclusions...Besides...

He felt two star-crossed lovers like Leto and Willow deserved some help to achieve their union...

A mild-mannered English barrister was a sucker for a story of true love...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXVI

The expedition to Sunnydale Historical Society at Sunnydale Library the previous day by Buffy and Basey had provided Tara with more background on Leto, but nothing useful in terms of spell-casting...Which had rather disappointed her assistant, Dawn...Who had hoped to see Tara

strut her stuff...

However there was still his old home...And while Dawn would have to miss out due to school, Tara felt she should join the Slayers on their visit...

But she had promised Dawn she would go over the results when she arrived next afternoon...

Buffy's and Basey's "friendly" dinner with Giles and Warren had gone off rather well, despite the mighty sorcerer's and the brilliant cybernetist's extreme nervousness on the realization that they were on a "date"...

The dear gentlemen had had the gallantry to insist on accompanying the Slayers on their late night patrol...

Which remained quiet...The peace still holding for the moment...Although the Slayers were carefully to give out stern warnings to those few "peace-loving" vamps they encountered...

The patrol was extensive, due to the hunt for old Leto, and the Slayers' desire for conversation with their respective "fellers"...

Fortunately, aside from their appointment with Tara, they had only one college class each to attend the next day...Professor Constantine Drages' afternoon seminar on Byzantine history as matter of fact...

Which, Buffy having informed Basey as to Professor Drages' being the Emperor Constantine XXX, hereditary Emperor of Rome and Byzantium, Commander of the Knights of Byzantium, Basey was as anxious as Buffy to attend...

History from the horse's mouth, so to speak...

And it had occurred to Buffy that Professor Drages' loyal Knights...Some of whom were doubtless still in the Sunnydale environs...Might be helpful in their quest for Leto...

That was intense...Warren sheepishly told Giles after they had dropped off the Slayers at the Summers home...

Slayers leave little doubt of their intentions once they lock on to a target...

Giles agreed...But of course the Slayers desperately needed some relaxation...Both had been under terrible strain in the past year...

Buffy losing both parents, dying and experiencing the horror of vampire transformation...With her soul trapped in the vamp body no less...

Even her resurrection had left its mark on her...To have to deal with the knowledge that she had killed an innocent and that her demon was, after all, uniquely hers...A part of her...

And poor Ms. Granger...Parents murdered, herself under the control of the murderer for a year, her friend and Observer murdered after helping to save her...She running from place to place with her brother in tow for years afterward until the Council finally assisted her...And now facing the

responsibility of being a Slayer...

Both had to treated with consideration, he noted to Warren... Who agreed, but who, like Buffy, had noticed Giles' showing some interest in Ms. Granger...

Giles for his part being not displeased with Buffy's choice of the young "cybergenius"...Who had shown considerable potential for development over the past month...

And who, for once, was neither a vampire nor a member of a secret and sinister government organization...

Ms. Walthrop-Hunt had made her formal report to the Council of Watchers regarding her infamous ancestor and his new bride...And their friend, Ms. Rosenberg...

The Council was indeed interested in the new Ms. Summers-Walthrop... Whom Giles had reluctantly described to them over the course of the past few days, if only to prevent unfortunate "incidents" when she and Spike arrived in England...Especially when they realized one Buffy

was still in Sunnydale...

Spike and Giles in their last preflight conversation had pretty much correctly sensed the outlines of what the Council's thinking would be...A robot Slayer would arouse their interest...As would the idea of building additional ones...perhaps without the troublesome human aspects of a Buffy Rebecca...

It didn't take a great deal of imagination knowing the Council's mix of duty, fanatic self-righteousness and ambition...

Giles had therefore been careful not to mention Spike's partner in BR's creation...And warned "Dr." Walthrop to be cautious in discussions with the Council's representatives...No need for Warren to find himself kidnaped and dragged off to England to build new and programmably

compliant Slayer-bots...

Even if in the cause of good...

Before their class, the Slayers took Tara on a visit to George Letos' family home...Now a somewhat run-down boarding house...

The manager was happy to let the college girls rummage through the basement stuff...Hell, no family...nobody cared...Unless of course they found something valuable...

They found a box of old love letters...George Letos to his wife, Clarice...Plus some old mementos of happier days, photos of the powerful Sunnydale pol and cronies...Including...

A Willow, of five or six...With her grandfather...

"Well?..." Buffy asked Tara...

"I might be able to use these..." she noted...

Buffy decided to continue looking, Basey helping Tara sort through the letters...

Rather nice letters...Basey noted to Tara...Leto had had a little romantic streak in life...

The light in the basement went out, suddenly...And someone...something ran out into the room from where it had been hiding behind an oil tank and boxes...

Lunging for the box of letters...

Willow in her "cooperative" state during their encounters had warned Leto to secure his personal effects from the gang...

Which he had tardily been attending to...With the help of some few remaining "friends"...

The vampire grabbed for the box...knocking it to the ground...Basey reared up on him...And pulled her stake...

He begged for mercy...He meant no harm...Only to hide overnight in the house, then take the things...Leto, Leto had promised him anything if he kept the Slayers from getting his things...

He was a peace-loving fellow, really...

Basey stood before the vampire who looked at her...rather frightened, terrified, really...Looking into his eyes...

And slowly offered her neck...

Buffy cried out to her...

Fortunately the vamp was too frightened to take immediate action...Buffy was on him in a second, shoving the dazed Basey out of his way...

Shaking her out of her trance, Buffy quickly realized that Basey had no idea of what had happened...

Thrall?...Some kind of residual thrall?...She looked at Tara...Who shook her head...Only Giles could tell them what was up here...

Buffy cautiously explained to Basey that they had to get to Giles'...Still confused but willing, she agreed...

"Did we get him?..." she asked...

"Got him..." Buffy nodded grimly...

They told Basey as little as possible and got her to rest in Giles' den...

Giles was saddened to hear that Ms. Granger was still under some kind of influence...

Buffy was puzzled...The vamp hadn't seemed to recognize Basey...He couldn't have been one of her former nemesis, Sentinus' minions...With an old claim...

And the Council had checked her out, supposedly...

Giles pondered...

"It could have been some kind of posthypnotic suggestion by Sentinus...Buried and undetectable but to be triggered when she had a seriously close encounter with a vampire...Possibly to test the

Council's detection powers..."

"A little remembrance card..." Buffy shuddered...And thought...Dracula, Darla, Dru...What have they left in me?...

Tara looked at them...

"Can we do anything, Giles?...We can't leave her like this...Even if we keep her from Slaying..."

Giles looked past her and Buffy...Trying to gently wave them silent...But...

"Yes, Rupert...What can you do for me?..." Basey was standing in the doorway...Arms folded...

Just before Buffy, Basey, and Tara had left on their expedition to the former home

of a certain once prominent Sunnydale pol...

Angel and his crew had gone to meet Phil, aka the "Voice"...Leto's dear sire...

In daylight...

Phil being notoriously hard to pin down, they thought a meeting in his lair at this time of day would help to focus his mind...

Angel knew of Phil, an older vamp, once, briefly, a companion of Spike...

Famed for his restraint and reasonableness in dealing with the human world...

And therefore never the type Angelis would have hung out with...

Phil was not caught completely by surprise by their visit...He'd expected one ever since Leto's little scheme had collapsed...

The sins of the sons are often visited upon the fathers...At least when both are vampires...

However he had not expected to be confronted by the famed Angel... Especially not during daylight hours...

Well, at least the three Slayers are not leading the lynch mob...

Leto himself was en route to LA...Concealed from sunlight under the protection of what remained of Wolfram-Hart, America's agents...Now directed by Sir Harold of Wolfram-Hart, Europe...Most of the senior US staff facing 10-20 in federal prison...

He was reflecting on his actions...With uncertainty...

Had he done the right thing in alerting the Wolfram-Hart people to Willow's abilities?...

Obviously he was useful to them in that regard with his tie to Willow... And for the moment had saved his neck from the wrath of the Slayers...

Possibly there was even now a chance...With his new friends' help...Of completing his union with his beloved...

But...

These Wolfram-Hart types had their own agenda for Willow...That much was certain...

And if nearly everything else human had died in George Letos, something sincere still remained of his ability to love...

All focused on one gentle redhead...The first person to voluntarily show concern for him in so many, many years...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXVII

Phil, being a vampire famed for his reason and common sense, was only too quick to provide Angel, Wes, and Cordy with what he knew of Leto's whereabouts...And actions...

And...with only a little more persuasion from the famed Angel...the current address of Wolfram-Hart's agent in town...

Phil asked them to give his regards to the three Slayers and good old Spike, his dear old pal...And hoped they would not hold Leto's follies against him...

He'd be pleased to do business again with them...anytime...

And...If the famed Angel didn't mind telling?...Where'd he get that ring?...

A young female jogger, a waitress by profession, living in Brusset, was only to happy to tell Dru about the Walthrop family still currently in town...After joining the ranks of her human pets...

A well to do bunch...With one member of especial interest to Dru...Whom she already had a little knowledge of via Sir Harold and Dr. Jones... William Walthrop, young heir... artist...bit snotty the waitress, still retaining a little of her anger and bitterness, noted...

Bitterness...Anger...Tendencies Dru, a Victorian, disliked seeing in women...And suppressed in hers...

William?...Hmmn...

Single?...

Single...And not gay...the girl noted, anxious to be helpful...

Seeing anyone?...Dru was genuinely curious...What kind of girl did the modern William like?...

Seeing...lots...Steady with none...God knows as to his preferences...

Ma'am...the girl added...After Dru's gentle reproval...

These modern girls...she sighed...No delicacy...

Well, if she knew her Walthrops...He'd go for the old-fashioned type...With a little grace...delicacy...

And she had just the girl for him...

As for her new "friend" she had a place for a trained waitress and devoted servant on her staff...If young Abby could learn to cultivate a less harsh, more gentile manner...

Abby was certain she could...

Ma'am...With a reasonable attempt at a curtsy...

Giles, under pressure from both human Slayers, agreed to do a probe of their minds using advanced hypnotic techniques...Aided by a mild probing spell to give a more visual picture of what might be hidden...In both their minds...

Basey was anxious and determined...She was not going to have this hanging over her head...She was not going to be forced to retire as a Slayer before she even started...

And Buffy had no intention of finding out Darla or Dru or Dracula had left a little "calling card" in her mind...At just the wrong time...

Giles agreed it might after all be good to have them working together for this...Guiding each other jointly...With Tara in support as well...

It would be similar in some ways to Buffy's vision quest if less dangerous but lacking the First Slayer as guide, the more support each had, the better...

But of course it meant...Sharing each others deepest thoughts and emotions...

Well, Buffy noted...She had already shared her deepest thoughts with her twin... While Basey figured...If you can't share your deepest thoughts and feelings with your fellow Slayer?...

"We'll be sisters, too..."she smiled at Buffy... "All three of us now..."

"Which we already are..." Buffy noted...

Through he had not shared any of his brother William's romantic nature, Philip Walthrop, the founder of the branch of theWalthrop family currently residing at home in Brusset, had been sentimental enough to start a family custom of naming the first son of each generation after his tragically lost older brother...

A custom which had been continued to the present William IV...

Who while not bearing a great resemblance to his ancestor, did possess a little of his romantic nature...

Not that Dru planned to take him for herself...No, that would be too easy to detect...And she was not planning to recruit among the modern Walthrops just right now...

That would only stimulate her little boy's efforts at her destruction...No, she had no need of extra servants right now...She needed them unvamped and unthralled...To help bring the American Walthrops in without arousing their suspicions unduly ...And so that if things did miscarry, the

American Walthrops coming to her doorstep would see the good sense of diplomacy and negotiation... for live human hostages...

She especially wanted young William, the heir and hope of Spike's family, under surveillance...And who better suited for the job than one of her dear girls, trained in Victorian-era grace and manners by Dru herself?...

Tara was on...

And with the success of the trip to Leto's old home in acquiring some personal items as well as the new problem posed by the discovery of Basey's subconscious thrall state, she had a full plate...

Though dear Giles was on hand in full support...This was her chance to demonstrate her skills...

Leto first...

She carefully followed the steps of the tracing spell she and Giles had determined to use...And using a few of Leto's old letters...To direct and focus the spell...She concentrated...With Giles, Buffy, and Basey...

Until an image appeared in their minds...Of a large nearby city...A hidden, secure room in a large tower building...

A building which they recognized...Not far from the now closed-pending-federal-investigation Wolfram-Hart tower...

LA...They realized...Leto had fled to LA...And now they knew approximately where he was...At least where he would most likely be during daylight hours...And at least for now...

Giles congratulated Tara...Willow would be so pleased with her progress...

And now the more complex process...Where the Slayers would play the major role but Tara and Giles provide key support...

The agent who had sent Leto on his way to LA was still at his motel when Angel and his group arrived...

Being a loyal member of the Wolfram-Hart family he was pledged to give up his life for the greater glory of the company and its long-term goals...

Being a member of the Wolfram-Hart family his primary interest was his own miserable hide and under Angel's gentle persuasion he was quick to give up the information that Leto had been sent to LA under WH protection...And to let them know what information Leto had passed on to

WH...

They headed back to Giles'...It was clear that it was time for Angel Investigations to return to home base...As unfortunate as it might be to have to cut short their homecoming to Sunnydale...

Spike was fascinated by the changes in London, even since the Second World War...

Not to mention seeing the city in daylight for the first time in over 100 years...

Still, as befuddled as he was, he managed to make a fine tour guide to his two charges...Who for their part happily papered over his many mistakes and confused pauses...And a lot of the old city was still familiar to him...

Willow felt a leetle guilty...Buffy Rebecca was so radiant she could have lighted up Piccadilly Circus...Spike practically had to be held down to keep from floating off...

They really should have had their honeymoon to themselves she thought...They'll be back to the old grind soon enough...

But they refused to let her keep aloof of their happiness...And included her in everything...Taking care not to forget that a human recovering from blood-draining might tire well before a robot and vampire...

Buffy, followed by Giles, with Basey beside her, strolled slowly through the images of Basey's subconscious...

While Tara attentively monitored their bodies in trance state...

Basey with her parents...Happy...Playing with her little brother...Friends...

Ms. Post, dark and threatening...

And Sentinus...Rather more handsome than Buffy expected...Even charming...

And the change in Basey as he put her under thrall...Concealing her state from her family...Watching her parents die, blankly...Trying to feign emotion to family and friends at the funeral...

And Max...Giles' old friend and a worthy one...

Who pushed and prodded his way into her life until he learned her secret...And saved her...

It wasn't surprising that she should have fallen for my Giles, Buffy thought...

And Sentinus' buried command...To offer herself to any vampire who she was ready to Slay...

An effective means of protecting himself surely...

Giles guided Basey to Sentinus' end...When somehow in reaction to Max's death, she'd found the strength to drive the stake into him...And made her see the buried last command...

With it out in the open, she could overcome it...he assured her...

She was a Slayer...

Buffy pressed her hand and Basey nodded...And kissed Giles, somewhat to his and Buffy's embarrassment...Even if it was all in their minds...

But not entirely to Giles' displeasure, Buffy noted...

Now as to Buffy...

There hadn't been much time for Darla or Dru to work on Buffy directly the night of Buffy's transformation, Giles had felt, but she had, as she had finally conceded with reluctance, been in Dracula's thrall for a week...

But there was nothing left there...Just Buffy's faint embarrassment at succumbing to Dracula's charms even for an instant...

They proceeded on to the night of the transformation...Basey saw and experienced with Giles Buffy's horror and sorrow at Hank Summer's unmasking as a new vampire...The coming of her sister to her aid... Their joint and suicidal despair when they both, for a instant, saw his soul in

his eyes for the last time as he tried to warn his daughter...Her death...And transformation...

The week of horror...Killing an innocent...The demon tearing at her, demanding...Her desire to surrender, to flee to her parents...The love of her sister and friends turning the scales back in her favor, keeping her in this world...Darla through Dru's skills trying to strengthen the demon to

overcome Willow's restraints...

Her offering of her body to Buffy Rebecca...And Spike... Their refusal, at the cost of being separated, perhaps forever...And her decision to have Willow risk the success of the resurrection process to merge her sister's memories with hers, so that BR and her beloved could be reunited...

And something, more...In the dim distance...

Joyce, coming gently to her...Pleading?...For what?...

For survival?...For her daughter to spare her?...

"Mother loves you, Buffy..." the dim image of Joyce said to her...But...

Buffy, standing with Basey, called out to her...But Giles knew...And pulled her back...

And moved to the image of Joyce...

Buffy pulled from Basey, now a stake in hand...Giles was going to hurt Mom, kill her...She mustn't let him...

Giles pulled Joyce's head on the image back...And it dissolved...Into Drusilla...Who continued to plead gently for her life...

Before Giles could reveal the true face to her, Buffy staked him in the chest...Basey jumping at her and pulling her back...To see Drusilla smiling faintly at them...

"Tara!..." Basey screamed...Breaking the trance for all three...

Giles collapsed in agony...Basey and Buffy ran to him...Buffy horrified, almost incoherent...

They summoned an ambulance and raced for the hospital...Giles' symptoms those of a heart attack...

Angel and co found Tara's message and met them at the hospital...

Giles had suffered a minor heart attack...

Buffy was prostrate...She'd nearly killed him, no matter that the stake was imaginary...

And all for Drusilla...

He was able to speak to them in a little while...And help Buffy understand...

Obviously Dru had been using her clairvoyant abilities to encourage the demon within during Buffy's struggle...Probably at Darla's insistence...

But, as Spike had told them, Dru's main concern was survival, first, last, and always...

So she'd added a little something for her own protection...A hypnotic memory to link her image to Joyce's...After all in her own mind, Dru was Buffy's third mother after Joyce and Darla...And to compel Buffy to at the very least to refuse to kill her "mother"...Even, perhaps, defend her...

But now...she was aware...Like Basey...And could deal with its...

Buffy came out of her grief in shock and interrupted Giles...

"Giles...Buffy Rebecca is me...She has my memories...Including the ones after my transformation..." Buffy looked at Giles...

They had to contact the Walthrops...As soon as possible...

Dru might well be better protected against the Greatest Slayer of All Time than they've ever thought...

The Mum-In-Law From Hell

The Tie That Binds...Part XXVIII

Dru had selected her girl Bonnie for the young William Walthrop IV...

Formerly an attractive, hard-driving, independent young career woman living in her building in London...Dru had "smoothed" away the "rough" edges of her manner and considered her the best of her human minions...

Very much like Dru herself in manner now, shy, gentle, and wan, minus of course Dru's psycho killer aspect...A charmingly winsome, old-fashioned young lady, attractive enough to appeal to a young romantic artist ...

And ready to perform any service in her mistress' interest...

Giles had assured Buffy that he would be fine...With the army of gang members hanging around his bed, she, Angel, and Tara could easily be spared to begin trying to reach the Walthrops and the Council by phone...

She nodded...Basey was at his pillow fussing over him...

Buffy couldn't help feeling just a twinge of regret...A pretty strong twinge, actually...Basey was right...Good heroic types like Rupert Giles do not fall out of trees everyday...

Still, he'd never have been able to deal with it...And it would have been well, a little icky for her...For a little while...And for the gang...Her second father...

With Basey at his side, a Slayer watching the Watcher, Buffy knew she would feel a little easier...Some of the fear that one day some enemy, another Angelis, would be clever enough to realize just who the pillar of her strength was, would be lifted...

And he'd always be her Watcher...More of a father in fact than...Well, no...She wouldn't do that to Hank's memory...But her second father, definitely...

Still, looking at Giles, hiding his pleasure at Ms. Granger's attentions, she couldn't quite repress that twinge of regret...A feeling that maybe just maybe she'd foolishly passed up something wonderful...

After all, she'd had a guy over 100 years older...And her twin had married one...

They got a message to the Walthrops' hotel to call them back immediately...And one to the Council explaining the possible danger posed by Dru's autohypnotic suggestion...

Angel discussed the situation with her and Tara in the hallway...He felt his team should get back to LA without delay if Leto was to be caught...

Wesley had already put the WH building under surveillance and had just expanded that to include the tower discovered by Tara with her spell...

Buffy thought...Perhaps it was time she had a change of scenery...Things in Sunnydale were quiet and Leto was the main problem at hand...

Besides she'd always wanted to see LA with Angel...

For his part, Angel couldn't hide his pleasure at the thought of squiring Buffy around his city in daylight...

His city...? Buffy couldn't help thinking... He still does that "HIS city" thing?... But she managed to repress the "bloody stupid" comment she'd picked up from Spike via BR's memories...

Tara was only too happy to join them...As was Warren who had rushed over on reaching the shop after work and calling Dawn at home who'd told him...

Buffy was rather pleased to see that her " -gap" guy was dropping everything once again to help her out...

Definitely potential there...

"Heaven...I'm in Heaven..." the strains of the song played as William and Buffy Rebecca Summers...Walthrop danced among the couples...

Willow watched from their table...They did make a beautiful couple...Maybe not the most attractive or glamourous but...Definitely the most beautiful...

BR waved to her...

She felt a protective pang for them...So odd, feeling this way for two who would still be dancing when she and Giles and Tara and even Buffy were long dust...And yet, both so fragile...

The embodiment of what Xander had been talking about in his wedding day speech...The tie that binds us...The love emanating from the Slayers...Powerful enough to save even William the Bloody...

Perhaps even Drusilla...

And even me...

A wise man, my friend Xander Harris...she thought...

Buffy briefed Xander on Basey's little problem...She should be fine now, but the "legendary human Slayer" should patrol with her...While Buffy and the gang in LA dealt with Leto...If he ...And more importantly, Anya...who was pleased to be included in the life-threatening negotiations...wouldn't mind...

When one's beloved is the "legendary human Slayer"...And needed...

But she insisted on being part of the Patrol group...

Dawn was not happy to left out of the LA expedition but relented when Buffy pointed out that someone had to coordinate things with the Watcher incapacitated...With the gang now so extended, it was vital that their operations be properly tracked and communication maintained...It

might mean the difference between life and death for some of them...And she expected Dawn to take the assignment seriously...

Not to mention collecting her college homework assignments for the next few days...Likewise of vital importance...The Council's "scholarship", however much a reward, still depended on Buffy keeping up her grades...And their keeping the house depended on her keeping the "scholarship"...

Dawn accepted her duties...Besides going to the college would include seeing Professor Drages...Who was in contact with dear old Ben in Greece...

Willow had somehow not associated karoke bars with London and merrie ole England...But somehow on their tour of famous ole pubs, Spike had managed to find one...

Not really all that difficult an achievement Willow was to learn...To her disillusionment...

Buffy Rebecca shyly but with the hubs' ardent encouragement was demonstrating the one area where she most differed from her twin...

She could actually sing...Quite well...Willow had already known she could hum...But...

[Suggested theme...If I Only Had a Heart]

BR smiled at Spike and Willow from the stage...And nervously, at first, sang...To them...In a rather jazzy style...

"When a girl's an empty kettle...Her heart may...be made of metal...Still it can be...torn apart..."

Willow grinned...

"Now I may be presumin'...But I think that I am human...If I truly have a heart..."

"I am tender...I am gentle...I can be...so sentimental...And I really feel the part..." She looked at the beaming Spike...

"So I may be presumin'...But I believe we're human...If we only have a heart..."

"Picture me...On balcony...My beau comes from..below...Strange place to find...Romeo..."

Willow winked at Spike...

"I heard his...Beat...So sweet..."

"When he registered emotion...And pledged me his devotion...I gathered up my nerve..."

"And I likewise think he's human...Though you may think I'm presumin'...'Cause I know he has a heart..."

That did it for Spike...Willow pressed his hand as he lost it...The audience applauded...

She came back to the table...Shyly...She was startled...She hadn't meant to make him...

He embraced her...

One month...One little month...

If I die this week, Willow thought...It will have been worth it...Just to see this...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXIX

The message Buffy had phoned in to the Council was taken by one Sidney Pruit...A junior member, most of the Council being away and in bed at this time of night...

He had promised to deliver the message to the appropriate people...

Sir Harold was pleased to learn that Dru had provided herself with an additional fall-back safeguard...And that it might well be effective against the new Ms. Summers-Walthrop...

He was even more pleased to learn that his practice of keeping an agent on the Council had paid a handsome dividend...Despite the American head office's disdain for the Council, he'd always retained a certain respect for their abilities...Ever since his days running agents for the SS Occult

Researches Branch...Just before his liaison service with the vampire legion...

Still, pleased as he was that the warning had been blocked, at least for a time...He realized that an inevitable divergence of his interests and Dru's was beginning...

WH was as interested as the Council in Buffy Rebecca Summers-Walthrop ...And her red-haired Wiccan friend...And wanted them both...Intact...

Well, intact to the extent that Mrs. Walthrop and her remarkable brain could be studied...And Ms. Rosenberg's transformation properly completed...

Still, at least for now he could continue to help Dru in her campaign against William the Bloody...However, once that traitor to his kind was dealt with...Dru would have to be restrained from dealing with her "daughter-in-law"...A shame, really...Dru had become almost a daughter to

him in the brief time they'd known each other...

But then he had no wish to become her version of a father...or son...

And those who have acted against fellow WH family must eventually be dealt with...At the appropriate time...

In the interest of preserving WH's image and status among the underworld's inhabitants...

Buffy slept on Angel's shoulder as they drove to LA with Wes driving...And dreamed...

Of the battle with Glory...But fought in a different setting...And no Buffy Rebecca, well, a robot Buffy was there, but not a BR, definitely...And she, Buffy, acting so strangely...Threatening her friends, Giles...With death...Well, ok, if they harmed Dawn to save the world...But still...

Spike was a hero...As naturally was Xander...But what was Joel Grey doing there?...And how could she be crazy enough to blindly leap into a dimensional vortex?...And die without knowing whether it would work?...

At least she would normally have tried binding Dawn's wounds first...And what was that crazy obsession with Dawny anyway?...I mean, I love Dawn and I would die for her, but...

Must be something the monks left, those jerks...

She woke, startled...God, it was just like those dreams she'd had during Warren's neural recording session...

Maybe she'd better have a talk with Warren about this...When time permitted...Or consult a good psychiatrist...

Well, at least her suicidal depression had definitely lifted...

She snuggled back...This time onto to Warren's shoulder...Can't let him feel left out...

Wes noted them in the rear-view mirror and was just a little relieved to see Buffy moving to Warren's shoulder...He was glad to see Angel happy but maybe the boss was getting a little too much happiness this week...

Leto paced his secure room...He was clearly a prisoner as well as an "honored guest" of the WH family...

He had no fear for the moment of his new allies...They needed him if they were ever to "acquire" Willow's services for the cause of evil...Although naturally they would have no further use for him once her transformation was accomplished...In fact he suspected they would prefer not to have him "interfering" between them and the new Willow as her sire...

But his primary concern was for Willow...Much as he wanted her with him...He could not

bear the thought of her sweet nature being twisted in the hands of Wolfram-Hart...Even

the little humanity he had hoped to preserve in her transformation would be lost in

their service, he could now see...

Perhaps he should reconsider his alliance...After all, an experienced old pol with a sense of history like George Letos knew all about the shifting sands of fortune and the need to be "flexible" in one's alliances...

Professor Drages was pleased to hear that Buffy was well on the mend and that her twin had completely recovered from her "illness" and was on honeymoon...He and his remaining Knights had been terribly distressed to hear what Ben had, following Giles' instructions, been allowed to tell them of the two Slayer sisters' deaths and resurrections...

Giles had preferred that Ben not mention BR's unique nature to the Professor...Not that he distrusted the Emperor...But Constantine XXX was after all a Caesar...Whose primary concern was the protection of the world from any potential evil...And there was always the chance that he and his Knights, like the Council, might feel it their duty to learn more about a robotic Slayer...

But for Dawn...Who had been a little nervous on seeing him again...After he'd nearly ordered her assassination during the Glory fight...He had that twinkle in his eyes...Even when he reminded her that even the noble Miss Summers...Both of them...Had to fulfill their course requirements...

And he was quick to gallantly promise any assistance to them that he and his Knights could provide...In fact, he happened to have several stationed in LA right now...And would alert them to be ready to assist the Slayer at any moment...He would head out there to join them as soon as possible...

Dawn thanked him profusely...No, dear Ms. Summers...It was he who was in her and her sisters' eternal debt...

He reassured Dawn that the Slayers would prevail and dear Ms. Rosenberg would be saved...

And yes...He'd be glad to pass on Dawn's best to Benedictus...

Benedictus...He sighed as he watched Dawn leave...With Buffy's and BR's course work in hand...Ah well, his chosen successor Basil would just have to look elsewhere for a consort...

Pity...Every bit as noble and courageous as her sisters...

Realizing that Willow was exhausted, the Walthrops suggested that it was time to call it a night and head for the hotel...

They were rather pooped themselves, come to think of it...And they had some construction work ahead of them...BR's biotank having been shipped in parts to a storage facility...

Its assembly was a top priority for Spike who, more than ever did not want to take any chances with the health of his new bride...Though BR was not anxious to sleep in biogel goo again, thank you...

Ms. Walthrop-Hunt met them at the pub's entrance as they were leaving... With news...

Drusilla had been detected...In Spike's home town...Behaving with uncharacteristic restraint but unable to avoid leaving a slender trail of gruesome murders...

Spike could see she was worried...Had she family there?...

Fortunately her branch of the family still residing there was on holiday...But there were Walthrops currently in Brusset...

He nodded...He'd head out immediately if she could arrange a place for him to stay...

Willow and BR refused to consider staying behind...He was after all in many ways the most vulnerable of them all...And they had not come to England just to applaud his heroics from the sidelines...They'd tolerate only so much Victorianism from him...

He sighed...Welcome to the 21st century, "Dr." Walthrop...he thought...

Still, to have someone care...After all those lonely years...

His great-great-grandniece didn't have to remind him as they waited for the others to collect their coats that he was an extremely lucky fellow...Even considering the injustice of his curse...

He could only agree...Even if he died this week...

The Knight's commander in LA was waiting for them at Angel's offices when Buffy and the group arrived...

He saluted Buffy and reported that the Emperor was on his way...And that, having contacted Mr. Giles at Sunnydale Hospital, he and his comrades had taken the liberty of placing the building where Leto was likely to be hiding, as well as the WH tower under discrete surveillance...

They were at her service...

Wes checked on his own group who reported that no one had left either building answering Leto's description...neither by the normal exits nor by the extensive WH tunnel/sewer system...

Wes was sure his informants watching the tunnels, subdwelling more or less friendly demons would have detected any attempt to move Leto to the WH tower building...If he was still in LA, he was in that building...

Buffy suggested the assault should be made in daylight and as soon as possible...When Leto was at his most vulnerable...It wouldn't take much to destroy him, the main problem being to prevent his escape...If some of the Knights in civilian dress, with Buffy and Tara in disguise could slip into the building by the surface entrances...While Angel, Wes, Warren, and Cordy with the rest entered via the main tunnel system...

An excellent plan the commander agreed...

Leto informed the agent "watching over" him that he was feeling vague impressions from Willow's mind...His superiors had asked Leto to concentrate on her and keep them informed of anything he received from her...So perhaps he should bring him to them...He felt the images

would be of interest...

The agent checked and indeed his superiors were interested...He and his assistant opened the door and brought Leto out to the hall...

Leto, as Spike had noted, was not by nature a fighter...Sensing which the guards had not taken especial precautions with him...However, he was a vampire...And when aroused to action by a threat to one he cared for...

The Knights had had a impressive array of credentials available, including identification as federal agents...

Considering Wolfram-Hart's recent legal troubles, it was no surprise to the building entrance security guards that a few feds should demand immediate access to the Wolfram-Hart auxiliary offices in the building...

Being rather short-staffed due to the ongoing string of indictments the WH personnel in the building had considered the tunnels only as a possible escape route so that Angel and the others below were well inside the building's basement by the time special agents Buffy and Tara and

their fellows had reached the third floor area where the first WH suite was located...

Just as Leto, in the fourth floor hallway of the second WH suite, made his break...

Dru's "assistant", Bonnie, under her influence and instruction, had indeed caught the eye of the young Walthrop heir...Traveling out to sketch, by a remarkable coincidence, just where the young William IV had set up his own easel...

Who engaged her in conversation and soon found the gentle young woman to have a remarkable affinity for the things most of interest in life to him...Aided by Dru's clairvoyant abilities...

And while his distant ancestor and companions were taking in London's night life...He and Bonnie had spent a very pleasant evening together...And agreed to see each other the next day as well...Their romance rapidly blossoming...

Which pleased her mistress no end when Bonnie returned to her later that night...

She indeed knew her Walthrops...

Leto rather easily overwhelmed his two guards and made for the stairway...WH personnel having been simultaneously tied down by a warning of intruders in the basement of the tower and a sudden assault by the "special agents" pouring into their third floor suites...

True to character as always the captured WH staff members outdid each other in providing Buffy and her fellows with information on Leto's location...She, Tara, and the Knights raced for the fourth floor to find that Leto had fled...For the roof...

Leto had reached the last area protected from sunlight near the roof access...Except for an occasional startled office worker, he had not encountered much in the way of obstacles or pursuit...the WH staff being occupied...

But he could hear the sounds of new pursuers moving up the stairs...And recognized the Slayer's voice in their midst...In a moment they would be on him...

He steeled himself...And burst through the access door with what covering he had been able to devise...Reaching the edge of the building in smouldering condition, he turned to see the Slayer and her fellows emerging in pursuit...

He could see the opposing rooftop of the next building and made the jump, barely making it...

Buffy warned the others back, sent Tara to call Angel to meet her in the other building, and followed...

But by the time she linked up with Angel in the other building it was clear Leto had escaped them...probably via the sewer tunnels...

They coordinated with the others and with Tara and Warren and a detachment of Knights, now accompanied by the newly arrived Emperor, they entered the tunnels...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXX

The tunnels quickly branched out into a wide maze...Even with the support of the Knights it was soon clear they could only concentrate their searches on a few of the major ones...

While they paused to review the situation, the Emperor recommended that some of his people move out to cover as many exit areas as possible...Buffy agreed...

Fortunately the Knights came well equipped and did not lack for cell phones...Or weapons...

Fearing they might become separated quickly, Buffy suggested to Angel that he keep an eye on Tara while she kept Warren close by...

Much to her surprise the two had already followed a group of Knights down one tunnel together...

Leto managed to stay one step ahead of his pursuers until nightfall when he slipped out of the tunnels and caught the commuter train...for home...Sunnydale...

Buffy and the group scattered through the tunnels finally called a halt in the early am...

None of the Knights checking exits had seen Leto...But they reported it had been impossible to cover more than a few at a time...Likewise for Wesley's contacts among the tunnel dwelling demons...

Discouraging...Especially with all the extra firepower...

But she was puzzled as were Angel and the others...Why had Leto been fleeing the protection of WH?...Several of the more feckless WH staff had told her that he had fled them before she and the others arrived...

Of course it hadn't been much protection in the end...

Professor Drages listened thoughtfully and suggested to her that perhaps Leto's agenda for Willow had, in the end, differed from that of the Wolfram-Hart staff...

She agreed...She could guess what WH had in mind for gentle Willow...Perhaps, somehow, Leto had enough feeling for her to wish to avoid that fate...Or at least enough selfishness to wish to keep her to himself...

A wise man, that Byzantine Caesar...she thought...

Angel suggested they alert Giles and Basey...Leto might well be returning to the old stomping grounds...Buffy agreed...

And noted that Warren and Tara and their Knights had not yet returned...Learning that no word had been received from the group for over an hour she decided to check on the status of her "stop-gap" guy...and their remaining witch...

Ms. Walthrop-Hunt had arranged lodgings for the Walthrops and Ms. Rosenberg at a small inn just outside Brusset...She had a small cottage near the currently empty family estate for her own use...

Spike and BR requested she abandon that plan...To stay alone, exposed, with Dru in the area might jeopardize them all...And she was their contact with the Council, the only source of potential help and reinforcements...

She agreed to stay with them...And that it was best for all to keep constant watch over each other from now on...

Buffy Rebecca was not entirely displeased to be staying near Spike's home town...In a charming little inn...Even if they were now approaching the danger she'd feared ever since Spike had announced his intention of freeing Drusilla from her curse...

He was sleeping...She watched him...He'd never seemed so much like a little boy...

She knew there would have been no stopping him in any case...Just as she could not be stopped from meeting Glory...And it was essential to his redemption...He sensed that and she did too...

But...she was frightened for him...Drusilla was in her unique way the most terrifying vampire Buffy Summers had ever encountered...Who'd killed a fellow Slayer in front of her eyes...All the more dangerous in this case she felt because Dru had no great, grandiose schemes for revenge or Apocalypse... Just a desperate desire to survive at any cost...

It was not the usual defense they were mounting but an attack...Dru was the one

fighting for life...On her home ground...And she had had time to prepare...

Still BR was fighting for her husband's existence...She knew that Dru still hoped to drag the demon in him out from wherever love, the chip, and William Walthrop's soul had managed to drive it...She would never allow that to happen...Whatever she had to do to prevent it...Whatever the cost in suffering for her...

But there was one thing more...Buffy Rebecca had her own agenda in the hunt for Dru...Much as she might sympathize with the human Drusilla's agony...

Dru had murdered and condemned her William, tried to kill Dawn, nearly destroyed Buffy...

And killed Hank Summers...

Leto had hopped off the commuter rail just a mile before Sunnydale anticipating the efforts of the Slayers and their friends to intercept him...

Which Xander, Anya, and Basey had attempted...Even now pausing at the rail station before moving on to check the bus station and major roads into town...

He was uncertain as to his next course of action...But he knew now that so long as he was bound to Willow...She was in danger...

He hadn't entirely lied to the Wolfram-Hart people...He had faintly sensed what she was seeing...In London...though he had been uncertain where she was...Until the WH staff had informed him...

The effects of Angel's transfusions were slowly wearing off...And his tie to her was slowly gathering strength once more...If she was not freed from him, soon...She would die and transform...In a place where he could not protect her...From her friends...Or his...

But the more serious threat were his Wolfram-Hart allies...Who, now having lost him and his connection to her, would try a more drastic route to speed her transformation...And who had access to her in Europe...If their boasts were true...

His love might be hopeless now...But there was still a service he could perform for her...If he lived long enough...

All a question of timing...he thought...

For her part, in the inn, just outside Spike's home town, Willow had begun to sense that she was again losing ground...But this was not the time to distract the Walthrops from their mission...

She vaguely sensed that Leto was fleeing...Hunted...And thinking of her...

She brushed the feelings off...And tried to figure out how to make an international call...She desperately needed to hear Tara's voice...At least someone from home...

No one at the shop...No one at the Summers'...Their dorm?...No...Giles' place?...Nothing...

Perhaps...They were hunting Leto...

She gave up and tried to sleep...Without success...

Buffy and Angel found their missing friends over a mile inside the tunnel network crouching near the entrance of a smaller branch tunnel...Their phone signal had been blocked by thick rock and electrical interference...

Rubbish, bits of scattered junk, and finally, a burning light, deep inside, indicated that someone or something was living inside the tunnel...They'd held back while Tara had used a letter of Leto's, brought with her, to try her locating spell again but without success...Whoever was in there, it was not Leto...

Angel, however, recognized a scent immediately...As, to her surprise, did Buffy...A little legacy of her few vampire days...One she'd become all too familiar with...

Darla's scent...

Angel regarded Buffy...Much as he understood her anger and could admit the justice of her case against the creature who had killed her father as well as herself...He still hoped to avoid a confrontation between the two...

Buffy however...

But she allowed him to follow her in...

No Darla...The scent though unmistakable...Was several hours old...

Warren and Tara joined them...As did two of the Knights...

But Darla had left something behind for them...Which a Knight found out the hard way, stumbling over the rope which triggered it...A booby trap...

The roof of the small tunnel collapsed on them...Fortunately Darla had not had time or desire to get very elaborate...

"Everyone alright?..." Warren cried out...

They were fine...Though the tunnel was blocked by rubble...But the Knights still outside were quickly joined by comrades and had nearly broken through before the group inside had finished checking on each other...

Calming after her initial rage, Buffy agreed it was unlikely Darla had meant the trap for them specifically...Probably just part of her natural instinct to defend the home lair...It might even be something Dru had set up when she lived with her...

Buffy also couldn't help noticing that Warren seemed to be a hair more anxious about his slightly shaken "cyberassistant" Tara than herself...

But then, natural enough...Tara wasn't superhuman...

Angel was visibly relieved that a direct confrontation with Darla had been avoided for now...

While Buffy reluctantly agreed it was best to hold off on a pursuit of Darla for the moment and there being no sign of Leto that she and the Sunnydalers should return home, leaving Angel Investigations with the job of monitoring for Leto in LA...

Buffy, Warren, and Tara accepted a ride home to Sunnydale with the Emperor...In a rather small car for one who was the hereditary Emperor of Rome and Byzantium...

But then, Buffy reflected...A college history professor's salary...

At that it beats what the two human Slayers could afford...

The wife of Dr. Walthrop, the "cybergenius" on the other hand...

Angel and the LA crew promised to report any word of Leto immediately to them...And would have the continued support of the Knights stationed in the city...

She had a few moments to say good-bye...

"We never did get to tour those sites..." she teased...

"Next time, I promise..." Angel told her... "After all, daylight is now my time..."

She frowned...She didn't like the idea of his playing with that ring any more than was necessary...At least not until it was surgically attached...

Cordy had promised however to keep a constant eye on it...

He nodded over at Warren who was talking with the Emperor and Tara...

"Not a bad choice, Buffy...He seems nice...And quite skilled, if your new sister is any indication..."

She grinned at him...a little sadly...Not yet the time for us...

"So he passes muster?..."

Angel looked seriously at her...

"If he can make you happy...he passes muster...Of course it's only a loan...Until someday..."

She nodded...

"Until someday..."

She kissed him good-bye, then thanked Wes and Cordy profusedly, and the Sunnydalers left for home...

During which she made a point of paying attention to Warren...

Pleased as she was to be back on a better footing with Angel...she had to consider the here-and-now...

Besides, if she was right, Warren might be heading into deep waters regarding his female "cybergenius" partner...And if so,Willow's interests were also involved...Not that she doubted Tara's affection for her friend...But...she wouldn't want to see either Warren or Willow hurt...

...A Slayer keeps her options open...

Sir Harold was furious to learn that Leto had slipped through the fingers of the remnants of WH, America...

Pity he couldn't use old school discipline with those fools...old Nazi school, that is...

Still, it simply meant they would have to ensure that Ms. Rosenberg died while Leto still lived...Well, still existed...

And the Walthrops had, according to his surveillance, moved on to Brusset...As he and Dru had hoped, even a little ahead of schedule...

All in all, things were going quite well, Dru being well prepared to meet with her "children"...

Including having his old friend, Dr. Jones on hand...As well as Sir Harold's promised "extra help"...

Now, all just a matter of timing...And patience...

Willow and BR found each other pacing in the hallway both unable to sleep...BR peered at Willow nervously...

She might lack medical training but as a Slayer she could recognize Willow's condition...The transfusions' effect was fading...

Willow looked at her sheepishly...And grinned...

"I'm not heading for the dank moors...If that's why you're wandering around at this time of night...Lover boy is still in the US, I'm sure of it..."

"Just doing my nightly fret...When I don't have patrol duty I get antsy..." BR smiled at Willow...

"And my blondie is dead to the world..."

"Is this the vampire who wanted to build a sex robot to have you?" Willow grinned back...

"Well...you know Spike...Pretty typical guy, really...Promises a girl endless mayhem...rampaging violence...Backs away all shy when the moment comes..." she chuckled...But, a loving bride, she couldn't resist adding...

"But always there when you really need him...As long as you pound him one...Hard..."

Hmmn...Willow thought...And she does have three times the average Slayer energy...Does that carry over to?...

Ms. Walthrop-Hunt had emerged from her room and joined them...She looked a little anxious...

They apologized for waking her...She smiled and shook her head and turned to BR...

"Ms. Summers-Walthrop?...Can I speak to you?...Alone?..."

Willow watched them enter Ms. Walthrop-Hunt's room...She decided to remain in view of the door...After all they had agreed to watch each other...

And, like Spike and Giles, she did not entirely trust the motives of the Council of Watchers...

Willow would have been even less trusting had she entered the room with them...And seen, as BR did, that Ms. Walthrop-Hunt...Amelia... was in extreme anxiety over something...

"Ms. Summers-Walthrop, there's someone here you must meet...Who wants to help..."

BR looked a little around the room as quickly as possible...No one else in sight...

"No..." Amelia looked at her...at pointed at herself... "Here...in me..."

The Tie That Binds...Part XXXI

Sir Harold had contacted Drusilla via her human minions at Brusset...

It was disappointing that things had not gone off in America as well as he had hoped...A poor performance by the shell-shocked dregs of the WH, America team...However...

Leto may have been lost, but Willow was still very much in their grasp...And the fascinating Mrs Walthrop likewise near, though perhaps not quite so vulnerable...Although if Ms. Rosenberg or her husband came into their hands...

Even one so powerful as Ms. Summers-Walthrop had her little weaknesses...Therefore...

Sir Harold had a favor to request of his dear partner, so like a daughter to him...

As long as Ms. Rosenberg was in the area with her dear "children"...Could she possibly consider paying a call?...Perhaps a little sooner than she had planned?...

With assistance from his staff, of course...

Dru had been entertaining when Sir Harold reached her...Her dear "friend" Bonnie had brought home a guest...

One William Walthrop IV, artist and descendant of Spike's brother Philip...

Who'd been rather surprised to find Bonnie's charming "aunt" so youthful...And even more surprised to find her living in the home of his absent cousins, descendants of Spike's other sibling, Amelia...

But then that side of the family tended to keep aloof about its doings...Though William couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the caretaker, Scroggs, was earning himself a little extra in rent while

the owners were away...

Dru was thoughtful...Much as she liked the idea of causing Buffy pain through the loss of her friend...Particularly the friend who had done so much to upset Grandmother's plans...

To take the offensive against her enemies...Expose herself...After all her pains to prepare her defense...

And in the middle of a very pleasant evening with Spike's descendant...

Not a very jolly prospect...

Still, she could not easily say no to dear Sir Harold...Whose friends and employees were essential now to her survival...

After all, thanks to her dear minion Bonnie, she now had "insurance"...In the form of young William IV...hope and heir of Spike's brother's family...

Whose "little romance" with Dru's faithful minion was now going to have to take a surprising turn...At least from his point of view...Involving a enforced stay at Dru's...

Perhaps, with so much help available...And if her little secret hold on Buffy was still intact...

But if she was to take such a risk...Then she expected her allies to fulfill their part of the bargain...

And secure her little boy for her...

Spike strolled into the hallway, obviously looking for the Missus...

Willow grinned at him and thumbed towards the room where she and Ms. Walthrop-Hunt were discussing matters...

"She's with your...niece..."

Spike came up to her and peered intently at her...Not good...Rather time for a trip to the nearest ER he'd say...If they had one in this god-forsaken hole...

"Red, you look like hell..."

Spike always has a compliment ready for me Willow thought...

But he was looking intently out the large hall window towards the gate at the end of the front yard...

They had visitors...

In the room BR regarded Amelia...

Someone inside her...Wanted to speak with her?...

Amelia explained that she had not been as callous toward her ancestor's plight as Ms. Summers-Walthrop might have thought...Since early in her career with the Council she had been experimenting with channeling... In vague hopes of one day reaching William Walthrop's trapped soul... Perhaps to help him escape...

BR nodded...

But...Amelia hesitated...She had had no success...Until a few weeks ago...When someone finally did reach out to her...Someone who knew her ancestor...slightly... and like him been trapped...Until, for an instant...Her buried soul had been brought out of its limbo prison...By Ms.

Summers-Walthrop's dear friend Ms. Rosenberg...

Drusilla...

[Suggested theme...Song for Dru (The Maids of Arrochar)]

Amelia left it to her to explain...Drusilla had very little time as it was...Before her demon would become aware of her reaching out ...And drag her back...

"Miss..." Dru spoke through Amelia... "How can I thank you?...You and Mr. Walthrop...To risk so much...For me..."

"I...Who have failed God so miserably..."

BR was in tears...This is so unjust...It is for God to apologize to you, poor Dru...

"You are not to blame...Dru...ummn...Miss Drusilla..."

But how was she here?...And why?...

"Your friend loosened me from my prison, Mrs. Walthrop...I had no strength to fight 'It' before...My faith...failed me...After he...the other...killed me...I thought God had forsaken me...For my weakness..."

"You are not to blame, Drusilla..." BR began...But Dru had little time...

"I had to speak to you...And to Mr. Walthrop...You are in danger...It knows you are here...Pursuing it...And It has friends...God forgive them, humans..."

BR nodded...But...

"You especially are in danger Mrs. Walthrop...It wants to destroy you...More than Mr. Walthrop even..."

"'It' can't hurt me, Dru...er...Miss..." How do you address an innocent Victorian nun, BR wondered...

"No, Mrs. Walthrop...You are wrong...It can destroy your soul...And it will...I have seen it..."

A vision?...BR thought...And asked her...

Amelia as Dru took her hands firmly, pleading...

"It lives to destroy souls...Mine, Mr. Walthrop's...Yours...To drag them down into Hell with it..."

"But I must tell you that you must not let it have you...Your soul...Your body. It...And its friends want both...And they will succeed...Unless you are prepared for them..."

"But what are they planning, Miss Drusilla?...How can I be ready?..." BR asked her...

A little plain-speaking, please...

"You must not agree to what they will ask of you...No matter what happens...You must not. And you must be prepared to face the consequences of that..."

Spike...BR thought...She means I must lose Spike?...

"Drusilla...Tell me...Will I lose my husband?..."

"Mr. Walthrop will never be lost to you completely, Mrs. Walthrop...Not so long as his soul lives...But I cannot say if you will lose him for a time...I can only sense that much more will be lost if you agree to their demands..."

"Drusilla...What are they...It...going to ask of me?...Can you tell me anything more?..."

"They want you Mrs. Walthrop...to surrender yourself to them...I cannot sense more...Forgive me, please...I must go..."

Amelia returned to her normal state...Shaken...

BR was pensive...So Dru wanted her as did her "allies" whoever they were...But did human Dru mean that they wanted the Slayer's... Buffy's... soul...and body?...Or did they know more about her own nature than she thought?...

But the most tormenting thought...Was she doomed to lose William as she feared?...Would his demon be released again?...Would he be destroyed by their enemies?...

Would she have to kill him to save him?...

Amelia looked at her...

"Buffy?...I don't remember all of it...Is there anything I can do?..."

"No, Amelia...But thank you...Any information helps...But..." BR looked at her sadly..."Prophecy and I have never gotten on too well..."

"Poor Drusilla..." Amelia shook her head... "It seems so unjust..."

Yes...unjust hardly begins to describe it...BR thought...

William is right...God is a merry fellow to do this to us all...And I would like my own five minutes alone with Him at the end of all this...

And forgive me...Buffy and me..., poor Dru, for ever thinking you weak, blaming you...

For Daddy...

A bang at the door...And a hasty shout from Willow...

They left the room hurriedly...To find that Spike and Willow were engaged with company...In the front yard of the inn...

Drusilla and her friends had come calling...

Leto had reached downtown Sunnydale in one piece, having slipped past Xander's and Basey's attempts to monitor the bus and train stations as well as major roads with some help from Knights in the area...

He had every intention of meeting with the Slayers and their friends...But not until he was ready...

He had watched and listened carefully and quietly while a "guest" of Wolfram-Hart...As befit a master politician...And only needed a chance to make a phone call to confirm his information...

Collect, to Europe...

And then to do what he could to ensure that the information would reach Willow safely...

Mum-in-Law from Hell theme (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly")

Spike had to give Dru credit as he watched her approach, entering through the inn front yard gate...There was something courageous in her coming to them, boldly, knowing what they had in mind for her...

Even if she had somehow managed to find a small army of human and vamp goons to back her up...

Willow left him only long enough to bang at Amelia's door and joined him in the yard...

Not realizing that she in fact was the reason for the party...

The Emperor dropped Buffy, Warren, and Tara off at the Magic Shop...And promising to keep both his LA and Sunnydale Knights engaged in the hunt for Leto, took his leave...

After reminding Ms. Summers that she had considerable class work to make up...

It had been a rather strange evening for young William Walthrop IV...Bonnie, a girl gentle, passionate, and then strangely apathetic, by turns seemed to run especially to extremes in the presence of her aunt Dru...Who had been a dear but perhaps just a little too old-fashioned...

Particularly in her ethereal manner...which aped every Dickens' eccentric he'd ever read of...

And rather more interested in him than the average aunt of his acquaintance...But then she was rather younger than the average aunt of his acquaintance...

However nothing had prepared him for what happened after "aunt" Dru took her phone call...

Drusilla halted just after passing through the front yard gate...And looked quietly at Spike...And Willow...

Her "back-up" team was however a bit more active and closed in on them quickly...A few vamps, Spike noted, mainly humans...Well armed with crossbows...

But not moving in for a kill...just yet...

Tara in the Magic Shop was again trying her locator spell using what they'd left of Leto's personal letters...

She sensed him fairly quickly...On his way to Buffy's home...

Dawn...Was he meaning to take Dawn?...As a hostage?...

But, thank God, she was with Giles at the hospital...

After reaching Basey and Xander by cell phone, Buffy and Warren left Tara at the shop to man the phones and headed out to join them...At the Summers'...

"Hardly your style, dearest...To bring in strangers..." Spike looked at Dru...Who faced him in the inn's front yard...Her little army of allies and followers keeping close...

"Spike...Silly, silly little boy..." Dru sighed... "You and Buffy have been making such trouble for poor Dru..." She brightened... "How was your wedding?...Did my Buffy make a pretty bride?..."

"Lovely..." Spike indulged her...Noting the others moving in slowly...Closer...To Willow?...

"We missed you...But Buffy appreciated your gift..."

He carefully motioned Red back...

Nothing doing...She was here for the full monty...

"And did Angelis remember it?..." Dru grinned... "I thought he might..."

"He remembered it..." Spike slowly backed toward the inn door... "So what do you want, dearest?...I'm afraid we didn't bring any wedding cake..."

"You're the one who wants something of me, I think...my poor silly boy...But..." She focused on Willow... "Little one, my friends want to speak with you..."

"This is strictly family, dearest..." Spike told her... "Willow is not involved..."

"Oh, but Spike...My dear old 'uncle' wants to speak with her...And she is involved...She hurt Grandmother...Broke her heart..." Dru crossed her heart with a finger... "Right in two..."

"Come here, little one..." she reached out to Willow...

Spike blocked Willow's view and prepared to throw her back...She was already susceptible...

But oddly enough Dru's call was having little if any effect...Willow stood her ground and grinned at the nervously watching Spike...Her mother hen...

Both Dru and Spike were a bit surprised...Not like Dru to fail with a hypnotic summons...In eye contact of her victim...

A more direct approach was required...

[Suggested Leto's Theme (The Godfather)]

Waiting for the Slayers near their home, Leto had felt Willow in danger...And done what he could to strengthen her resistance...

He felt mildly ridiculous...He, such a practical fellow by nature, caught in such a foolish situation...Driven by the tie he himself had forged...To destroy himself for his love...

Perhaps, if there was an afterlife for his soul, his wife Clarice would appreciate the gesture and ignore the fact that it had been directed towards someone else...She might...She was a tolerant and romantic soul...It was pleasant for him even to fancy that Willow was Clarice reborn...

She had after all died long before Willow came into the world...

Basey and Xander had arrived...And saw him waiting for them...

Leto looked at them...and smiled...

They staked him before he could finish pulling out what was in his pocket...

Two letters...

The letter to Buffy warned of WH's plans for Willow, including an outline of what he had learned of their operations in Europe, and profusely apologized for Leto's foolishness with the hope that the peace would somehow be continued...

Most important it included the name of the old English law firm that WH, Europe used as its cover and that of its director...the distinguished Sir Harold Milliken...

Along with a direct phone number to his office...

The other was to Willow...

There was a commotion off to one side of Dru's little strike force...

The Greatest Slayer of All Time had joined the fray...From a side door, seeing that the major threat was from the group of Dru's "friends" moving in on Spike and Willow...

As always she could not kill the human allies but she could do an excellent imitation thereof, tossing them right and left as she cut her way through...To Drusilla...

Who had given up hypno games and charged for Willow...With her followers in close support...

Dear uncle Harold would have been so pleased by her enthusiasm...So much improvement over her last period of employment with WH...

Willow had suddenly collapsed...Just as Leto had been staked...And Dru was on her in an instant...

Spike threw Dru off Willow...And Buffy Rebecca came up, scattering Dru's followers...And looked at Drusilla...Who trembled...To suddenly find herself abandoned by her fleeing allies...

She knew this Buffy, the strong one who'd thrown her and Grandmother around like dolls...But...with a soul, now...A Bad One...Buffy's...

But BR froze, seeing...Mom...It couldn't be...

But staring at her...Was Joyce...

"Help me, Buffy..." she called to her...

"Mom?...Mom?..." Buffy Rebecca cried...

"Buffy..." Spike screamed to her... Dru fell back and ran toward the gate...He chased after her...

She couldn't let him...Hurt Mom...No...

BR was on him in a second...And threw him back...She wouldn't hurt him but...

Dru stared at her from the gate...

Willow called to her... "Buffy...Buffy!...That is not your mother!...Listen to me..."

"Don't let them hurt me...Buffy..." Dru called to her...

Spike was up and trying to slide past her...BR threw him down again toward the fence...Unconscious...She stared at him...She couldn't let him hurt Mom...

Willow came up behind her where she stared at Dru standing by the gate...

And a group of rallied figures beside her...Who advanced on Spike and them...

Willow wasn't sure what you used to bring a robot out of a trance...But assumed it took something preety hefty...So she grabbed the first thing available and whanged Buffy Rebecca on the side of her head with a rock...

She came out of her trance...And confronted the group closing on them...Who fled...Except for two she managed to grab...

Dru had slipped away...

And Spike was gone...

Willow was apologetic...She hadn't meant to hurt her, you understand...But crisis situation...

"It's ok, Will...We'd have lost you too..." BR looked at her...and faintly smiled... "But I do bruise, in case you didn't know..."

I've let him down...And lost him...she thought...Oh, God...What did she do to me?...

"Buffy?...What do you want to do now?..." Willow came over to her...

"I'm going to find my husband...Alive or dead...And destroy that thing and anyone helping it..."

She turned to look grimly at the two humans she'd captured...Sitting nervously on the grass...

Who claimed to know nothing...Hired by friends of friends for a little "job"...

Willow was a little nervous...BR had the same look Buffy had when she'd come in for Warren that day back in the shop...The dark side of the Slayer...

Well, at least she couldn't kill them...Intentionally...

Ms. Walthrop-Hunt ran out to them...

Buffy was on the line via the Council and her computer...With urgent messages...

Though Wolfram-Hart, Europe was known to prominent members of the European underworld both criminal and demonic...Its offices had always been carefully disguised under the name of an old, conservative English firm...For just the sort of eventuality that had resulted with the collapse

of WH, America...

Therefore, Sir Harold was rather surprised when he received a phone call from...

Mrs. Summers-Walthrop...

Who requested an immediate meeting...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXXII

Buffy had been saddened to hear that her earlier warning on the posthypnotic suggestion left in her...and therefore, BR's...mind by Dru had not reached BR in time to prevent the loss of Spike...

But at least she had been able to provide a clue as to who Dru's mysterious human allies were...

As well as a direct phone number to their top dog...

Courtesy of the late Leto...

She and Warren, with Basey had headed into the hospital to consult with Giles...Now well on the mend. While Xander and Anya provided some back-up...and the good news on Willow's release from Leto's grip...to Tara at the shop...

Giles, Dawn, and Basey's brother Leroy were engaged in an intense game of Trivial Pursuit...Focusing on what they knew of Drusilla, Spike, Darla, and Wolfram-Hart...

As always with Giles, having a practical point at bottom...And a rather brilliant way of avoiding the strictures laid down to him by his doctor, his friends, and especially his Slayers to keep from any work...

A brainstorming session, both Buffy and Basey realized immediately...

"Giles!..." Buffy shook her head...And glared at the sheepish Dawn... Who'd caught on to what Giles was up to but had been enjoying the "assistant researcher" post too much to give it up...

"Rupert?...Did you get any rest at all?" Basey asked him...Quite protectively...

My partner is rather free with my Watcher's first name...Buffy noted...

Oh, well...She did give me a choice...And glanced over at Warren who was helping a chastened Dawn gather up her notes...

And not a bad choice at all, really...Hmmn...

I must remember to have a little talk with Tara when things settle down, though...

Back at the shop, Tara was grateful to hear the news on Willow's release from Xander and Anya...But a little saddened to hear that Leto had tried in the end to do something to make amends...

Not that she felt Basey had been wrong to stake him...It was just a little sad...

But Xander didn't quite agree...He had done some thinking on the whole issue of vampire redemption...

Leto had died trying to do some good...A rare thing for Sunnydale vamps, Xander could tell you...

Perhaps, if there was any guilt that could be associated with some poor soul who'd been trapped into the undead existence, something like that cleared the books...

It seemed to have worked quite well for Spike...And was in progress for Angel...

And after all, everyone Leto cared about...excepting Willow of course...was long gone...

No, Xander felt...If you had to be a vampire...And you had no chip or gypsy curse or robot human-souled Buffy to help you out...It wasn't a bad way to go...Dying while trying to do something good...

A lot better than being staked in the midst of a bloody kill...

Giles was concerned to hear that Dru's attack had seemed aimed at Willow rather than the Walthrop's...And that she had had considerable help...

Clearly Wolfram-Hart had guessed Willow's potential...

And she would still be weak for a while yet, even if Leto no longer existed to exert his hold on her...

"So...You don't think it's time to restore Willow's abilities?..." Buffy looked at him...Both she and Basey were hovering nervously around the Watcher...Anxious to make him rest...But Buffy had to go over this...Willow was the closest source of potential reinforcement for her sister...

If her brother-in-law was to be saved...

She was determined to do something to help them...

No...Giles did not feel it safe to restore Willow...If, while still in a weakened condition...she should fall into Dru's hands...Or some other agent of WH...

But...there was still the Council...Even if they had proven ineffective in transmitting vital information...

Buffy nodded...

But in any case she must not lose heart, Giles told her...BR had information on WH, Europe now...And knowing her...She would use it...To the greatest effect...And as soon as the idiot doctors would let him out of this room...

Basey strongly hinted it was time to leave...She wanted Giles to rest now, please...

Buffy repressed a mild spark of resentment...She didn't need to be urged to take proper care of her Giles...

But he did look a little worn...She noted guiltily...

On their way to the shop, Basey apologized...She hadn't meant to cut between Buffy and her Watcher on Slayer business...Particularly involving family...It was just that...

"I take too little care and too much advantage of Giles..." Buffy finished...

Well...Basey wouldn't say...

"It's true...But I'm glad he has you watching him...'Bout time that Watcher was properly watched..." Buffy grinned at her...

And noting that Warren seemed lost in thought, gave him a little pat...Worried about his "son-in-law" and good buddy...Not to mention his "daughter"...

"Spike will make it, Warren...Believe me, he's beaten worse odds..." she smiled at him...

"And I oughta know..."

He nodded...But noted that BR was now facing human enemies...And humans, thanks to him, were her Achilles heel...

And then told her his idea...Perhaps there was a way Wolfram-Hart's new interest in BR and Willow could be exploited...

Leto's lifetime of keeping his eyes and ears open had paid off during his time with Wolfram-Hart's LA survivors...During phone conversations with the firm's leaders, anxious to learn what he could tell them of Willow and BR, he had overheard, in the background the European branch's cover name...That of a famous and venerable old English law firm...

Headed by the distinguished jurist, Sir Harold Milliken...

It did not surprise BR to learn from Buffy that Wolfram-Hart used a different name in Europe...

The firm took care to cover its tracks...And had the connections, equipment, and talent to do so...

Buffy had begged her to be cautious...Knowing all too well how futile that was...

If the firm had answers regarding Dru's and Spike's whereabouts...BR would get them...Whatever it took...

She saw a tall, sixties-ish white haired man wearing spectacles at his desk, looking quite hale and hearty...

"Mrs. Walthrop..." a pleasant Sir Harold rising from his chair greeted Buffy Rebecca cordially...

"What do you think?" Warren asked Buffy...Who frowned...And yet, couldn't help being pleased...Was this the guy who a month ago she'd gladly have thrown into the nearest garbage disposal?...

But...To take such a risk...A more than personal one really...

To fly to England to help BR...And perhaps, if possible, to offer himself as a trading chip for Spike?...

The robotmaker for the ersatz "cybergenius" vampire?...

Giles would love that, she thought...To risk handing Wolfram-Hart a potential army of obedient robots, dedicated to pure evil...

He'd be lucky to reach England alive...If word reached the Watchers' Council...

But BR and Spike were his family...She might be helpless against the new human foes...And she had only a severely weakened Willow to help her now...

Buffy reluctantly agreed...But he could not go alone...

And as Basey had clearly overcome her little problem in Slaying as her work on Leto had demonstrated...

A Slayer was available...Who had family and best friend interests in the matter...

Warren had suspected she might insist on going...And therefore had booked two tickets when he'd called the airlines from the hospital...

Definitely potential there...Buffy thought...

Just a matter of discussing the "Tara situation" when opportunity allowed...

Basey reluctantly agreed to cover things up until they were well on their way...And to watch over Dawn and Giles and the gang...Whatever happened...

Well, Buffy thought...At least we get some time together alone...A chance to get to know each other...

Before we start mass killing our way through Wolfram-Hart, Europe to Spike...

Dr. Jones aka Hans Grezner was pleased to finally be called in for his part in Dru's little game...

He set to work with gusto...Most of his surgery in the past 56 years had been so routinely life-saving...

This was a chance to shine...And relive the good old days...

Sir Harold was all smiles, but volunteered nothing...

His firm had had "contacts" of course with the famed Wolfram-Hart firm of the US...But as to a partnership with them...

He couldn't possibly comment...Given the current legal situation...

"But you do know our Miss Drusilla?..." BR was getting impatient with the elderly barrister...Who clearly enjoyed stringing her along...

Well...His firm handled hundreds of individual clients...But even if the lady in question had legal dealings with them, he obviously could not discuss them without her permission...

She sighed., and after begging him to contact her if he did hear anything of the "lady" in question...took her leave...

After firmly implanting him and his entire staff in her supplemental memory...

Young Mr. William Walthrop IV had spent a rough couple of nights...After Bonnie and other minions of Dru had seized him, drugged him, and dragged him to Dru's little basement dungeon...

Clearly the bloom was off the rose in his latest romance...But what was all this craziness about...

A kidnaping most likely, perhaps some kind of con game?...With the youthful eccentric "aunt" as leader...

And the poor fellow in the other section...What had they been up to with him?...A "doctor" had been active with him...It looked as though they'd actually performed some kind of gruesome surgery...

Amputated a finger, perhaps...To mail as a warning to the poor bloke's family?...Pay up or else?...

He'd seen it done in American films and TV...All the time...

As he left his office a while after BR had left him, Sir Harold was visibly on guard as

befitted the current leading light of Wolfram-Hart...But he was quite willing to give

the remarkable Ms. Summers-Walthrop a proper chance to follow him and those

who accompanied him...And throughly expected her to do so...

He was all-in-all rather exhilarated to be taking the field again after so many years...And he was looking forward to making the acquaintance of the legendary William the Bloody...At Dru's, in Brusset...

Their last meeting at Leningrad had of necessity been too rushed for formal introductions...

Giles was understandably furious to learn that Warren and Buffy had headed off to England...But realized there was no point in giving the Council too much information on Warren's unique talents...He therefore merely passed on the information that Buffy was on her way with a friend...

And suggested the Council make an effort to provide a little more assistance than had been the case to date...

Basey was apologetic over her role in concealing the leave-taking but she sympathized with Buffy's and Warren's "family" concerns...And pointed out that BR and Willow were in serious danger if humans were fighting them...

However ironic that fact might be...

Besides, she could see that Giles wasn't totally unhappy to see Buffy back in the game...With a chance to shine in an area where even her powerful sister could not compete...

For her part, Buffy Rebecca was aware of the danger of following Sir Harold right into whatever he and Dru had waiting...And she had not entirely forgone the assistance of the Council...

In the form of Spike's...niece, plus or minus four generations...Who would be working with and protecting Willow...

While Spike's loving Missus had a rendevous with her psycho "Mum-in-law"...

A still groggy, chained, and well-trussed up Spike had little difficulty recognizing Dru as she approached his cell...But somehow she seemed...Different...

He couldn't sense her...As a vampire...The stuff they'd used on him perhaps...

She looked at him, almost gently...Her silly little boy...

"Are you feeling better?..." she asked, almost kindly...

He nodded...But as to that...He did feel rather...

"What have you done, Dru?..." he asked her wearily...

"Spike..." she put her fingers to her lips... And pointed toward the other cell...Where young William IV was now up and pacing...

Spike looked over...Someone else here?...The Missus?...Not likely, unless unconscious she'd have smashed through the bars in a second...Willow?...

"What's going on here?..." young William called out to them... "If this is about ransom...My parents will give you anything you want..."

Dru grinned at Spike...And shook her head...

Humans and their obsession with the material...

No wonder the modern world has so few real values left...

"A relative of mine, Dru?..." Spike asked her, soft enough to avoid being heard by the young Walthrop... "Thoughtful of you dearest..."

Dru nodded and smiled...

Then Spike realized he was feeling something he'd nearly forgotten in the past weeks...

A faint touch of bloodlust...Not his usual appetite for BR's blood cocktail...The real thing, complete with an urge, still weak, but definite, to make a genuine kill...

The chip had been deactivated...And his demon was banging on the gates once more...

But Dru had a guest to deal with...And curious as she was to see the effect of Dr. Jones' work, she preferred not to have Spike interfering in their conversation...

Several of her staff on loan from Sir Harold approached and one shot "Dr." Walthrop with a tranquillizer dart...Rather a dangerous dose had he been human...

She inquired pleasantly after young William's condition before returning upstairs for a moment...

To see that her dear "daughter-in-law" was properly greeted...

Amelia and Willow had kept as close to BR in her London trip as possible without risking detection...And followed her back to Brusset with equal caution...

Giles reached them via Amelia's computer just after they reached Brusset...This time settling in at Amelia's cottage on her family's estate...To inform them that Buffy and Warren would be joining them shortly...

They did not inform him that they now realized the Walthrop estate was currently occupied...By Drusilla and her "friends"...No need to upset poor Giles any more than necessary, Willow thought...Besides...

They had to keep in support range of Buffy Rebecca...Who had no intention of taking a slow, cautious approach...And, in pursuit of Sir Harold, had halted on the estate grounds only long enough to pause at Amelia's cottage to make sure it was unoccupied...

Before she went up to the main house and began scouting for any signs of Spike...And the entrance least likely to be heavily defended...

One of Dru's minions very kindly opened the front door for her...

Buffy's and Warren's plane had arrived in London just as BR, followed by Willow and Amelia, had set out for Brusset...

Contacting Giles and the gang by phone, they headed out to Spike's hometown as quickly as possible...

But they were not unobserved, thanks to the work of the traitorous Mr. Pruit...Who'd passed on news of their coming to his employers at WH after learning of it at the Council...

And to Sir Harold at Brusset...Who was pleased to hear that Dr. Walthrop's business partner was coming out to them...

After all, he had seriously doubted that the good "doctor" could have accomplished the feat of BR's creation single-handed...However much he appreciated Spike's abilities as a vampire...

Not to mention the original Buffy Summers...

He'd long wanted to meet that remarkable young woman...

Pity no sign of Ms. Rosenberg as yet...But all in due time...

After the young woman left her in the hall, BR found most of the ground floor empty, except for a locked room which turned out to lead to a basement door...She cautiously went down the stairs and found Dru's makeshift dungeon...

Spike was unconscious, suspended lengthwise at waist height by chains in a large metal cell...A cage, almost...

Two guards, armed with crossbows were beside him...And a third...Drusilla...

Drusilla moved to stand over Spike...BR hurried to the cell but could not force its door open for all her strength...No way to pick the lock...She battered at the door, bending the bars, tearing the skin from her hands...In a minute...

"Stop!..." Dru called sharply...

And she saw that Dru had a stake in her hands...

"Let him go Dru..." she cried...

Dru called to her...Pleasantly...

"In England, it's customary to say please when requesting something of your mother-in-law, dearest..."

She pushed the stake ever so gently into Spike, just touching the skin over his heart...

"Please...Please, Dru...Don't..." BR begged her...

"You don't want our boy to have peace?...Strange..." Dru regarded Buffy Rebecca... "I should think you of all people..." She twisted the stake...

BR cried out to her, pleading...

"You don't want this...You don't want him to go, Dru...Don't do this... Oh, please..."

"He means...that much to you?..." she cocked her head at BR...Watching the tears streaming down her face...

BR trembled and nodded, knowing it would do no good...But Dru hesitated...

"Why?..." Dru looked at her...

"Really, Buffy...I am so puzzled..." Dru was sincere, BR realized "...How did this happen?...You and William?..."

"I don't know...I only know..."

"That you love my boy..." Dru nodded... "A good answer..." She pulled the stake away...

She put her finger to her mouth...

"Lets let him rest...poor silly boy..."

She waved Buffy Rebecca back and quickly emerged from the cage, closing it behind her before BR could slip in at it...

She moved to BR...

"You know what will happen to him...If you try to harm me..." she nodded at the guards... "They don't like me in any case..." she smiled at them... "So they will not bargain with you for me..."

Buffy Rebecca nodded at her...Still alive, still a chance...

"Now...Lets go upstairs and get acquainted...As a new daughter and mum-in-law ought..."

She guided BR back up the stairs to the hallway and into a large parlor room...

One of Dru's human minions, a young wan-looking woman served them tea...

Sir Harold was apparently not to join them just yet...

"This is my friend, Abby..." Dru indicates the poor girl...Clearly in the heavier stages of thrall...

"Meet my new daughter-in-law, dear..." Abby absently nods at Buffy...And stands protectively nearby Dru...

"It's good to have such dear friends...I find I've missed that...these last years..." Dru tells BR pleasantly...

"Is this what you want, Dru?... Me, like that?..." Buffy Rebecca looks at her...

Dru was clearly a bit annoyed...Spoiling her pleasant tea party with such direct questions...

"You must learn a little more reserve, my dearest...To be an English wife and daughter to such old-fashioned types as my boy and me..."

She pauses...

"Besides that would hardly be possible, in your case, would it dearest?...Not being in a human body, after all..."

BR looks at her...Dru grins...Just full of surprises is Dru...

She looks questioningly at BR...

"Tell me, dearest, was this how you escaped Grandmother's plan for you?...You see, I never forget an enemy's touch..." She gently stroked Buffy Rebecca's hand...

"This is the body of the empty one, the strong one who held Grandmother and me back...The day you were returned to mortal misery...Your soul, but a machine's body?..."

She laughs...

"I never believed in your Science myself...But it has certainly worked for you, Buffy...and my little boy..."

Dru insisted on the amenities of a proper English high tea before she would go further...

Her human self had never had such things at home in her poor mining town, she told Buffy Rebecca...So she found them a great treat now when she had the time...and company to enjoy them...

Her "daughter-in-law" watched her carefully, hoping for an opportunity...At least she was a little more rational than in their past encounters...

Dru was childishly pleased to see that BR could eat...She hadn't been certain...

And happily pressed tea sandwiches and cake on her...

Finally, she regarded BR warily and began to discuss their "problem"...

"It's you I don't understand, Buffy..." Dru smiles at her... "You say you love him...You could have had him safe with you in America...Yet you let him come, knowing what would happen..."

"I was willing to leave you both alone...Grandmother's anger with you doesn't apply to me, he must have told you that...You were the ones who hunted me..."

Buffy Rebecca looked at her...

"He couldn't let you suffer, Drusilla..."

Dru regarded her coldly...A breach of manners there...To address a vampire demon's human counterpart...

"You could have found a way to stop him, dearest...If you love him..."

She smiled at her sweetly...

"And you think me a monster..."

"You killed my father, Dru...Do you think I could let you go?...Even if I could have persuaded Spike to..."

"Yes...I killed your father...And you and your little friend sent mine to Hell...dear Angelis..."

"But we have a practical problem to solve here...Though I don't like worrying oneself over such things..." Dru wrinkled her brow in thought... "I can't kill you, it seems...Or even make you my 'friend'...And while you could kill me...You lose our boy if you do..."

"So what are we to do, Buffy?..."

The Tie That Binds...Part XXXIII

Buffy reluctantly let Warren drive after they'd been stopped twice by police...For driving on the wrong side of the road...She was rather distracted after all...

They reached Brusset in the early evening...And found Amelia's cottage without too much difficulty...

Dru bit her lip as she pondered "our problem"...

BR watched her cautiously...

Dru's prime interest was survival...If she grabbed her by the throat...Frightened her

into surrender...But Spike would be dead before even BR could reach him if Dru

wasn't lying about her Wolfram-Hart allies' disinterest in her survival...

And given WH behavior in the past...

Buffy in the cottage with Warren, Amelia, and Willow considered their next move...

Since BR had not yet come smashing through the front door of the Walthrop's home with Spike in tow...

Obviously she and Spike were in great danger...Probably a delicate situation...Very likely involving Spike's life...err...unlife...Possibly hers as well...

And they could not risk attracting WH attention...Not with Willow and Warren, two major chips, in easy reach of their forces...

Warren, however, suggested that this was not a time for too much caution...He'd come prepared to trade himself for Spike and if dealing for him could draw the WH forces out...It might give BR just enough scope for action...

"Our hero..." Buffy noted wryly...But Willow could see she was pleased...

The issue was settled for them, however...By Sir Harold...Whose people now stormed the cottage...Several of his agents having followed Buffy and Warren from London, courtesy of Mr. Pruit's information...

Drusilla continued her mediation, hands clasped as if in prayer...

Perhaps...there might be a solution...

BR noticed suddenly that she could not sense Dru's vampire nature...Strange...She noticed the pendant Dru wore...

The same one Darla had worn the night she came to destroy Buffy and Dawn...That had blocked Buffy's ability to sense her true nature...

Dru causally informed BR that Spike had been freed of his electronic conscience...

Was that not reason enough to send him to the eternal peace the Slayer so stridently claimed to offer?...Did she perhaps want to reconsider granting poor Walthrop the Slayer's unique "gift"?...

No, she did not...

Dru smiled...She had thought so...The gift of peace did not look so good to the Slayer when directed at someone she cared for...So, another approach was necessary...

Not that she expected Buffy to commit suicide...Even for her beloved...She would never think of asking so much...

But, had not Buffy's mind been placed within her new body?...Copied in fact, if her dear uncle's information had been correct...And while Dru had never had faith in Science...Her "daughter's" success was unmistakable...

Perhaps there might be a way for both of them to survive...Spike as well...

Buffy Rebecca remembered human Dru's warning...She must not accept what they would demand...Even if...

Buffy and her "cybergenius" had not come entirely unprepared...

Warren had just enough time to dispense one of his toys...a carefully disguised version of a stun gun...And shock the first WH agents who broke into the cottage...While Buffy had brought a little gift from Giles' shop, a fairly simple smoke cloud...More of a parlor gag than a magic trick

Willow couldn't help noting...Giles should really go through his inventory more throughly if he wants to keep his store's reputation up among true practitioners, she thought...

But these and the Slayer's strength were enough to hold the enemy, a mix of mostly humans with some vampires, off until they could slip Willow and Amelia out...

Dru had hit upon a "solution"...

"If we were to become one, Buffy?...In this body..." Dru stroked BR's hand... "I think that would be a grand solution to our problems..."

"My boy would never kill us both...And I would be safe...Forever..."

Share existence...With Dru's demon?...She is still crazy, no matter how much more reasonable she may seem BR thought...

"Dru...I would never give you this body...Even for William...My soul would never be able to hold you back..."

"I wasn't suggesting that you leave...Or even give me sway...Only that we share..." Dru looked at her...

"You don't love him enough...Even to try?..." Dru sighed... "Ah, well...I had thought you worthy of my little boy, Buffy...But I see I was mistaken..."

"Even if I consented, Dru...It couldn't be done...I don't know how..."

"Someone does...Spike perhaps...Or...whoever helped him with you..."

Sir Harold was disappointed to find that Ms. Rosenberg was not with Buffy and Warren...He'd so hoped to secure all the chips at one stroke...

But one must accept situations as they are...

His people held the Slayer and the "cybergenius" under the cover of heavy automatic weapons...Despite his desire to avoid bloodshed he'd warned them he was quite prepared to kill them if they made any more efforts to resist...

It was remarkable, really, having met Ms. Summers-Walthrop, to see just how perfect a copy of the original she was...

Willow and Amelia had reached the forest at the edge of the estate without pursuit, Sir Harold's people having assumed that Buffy and Warren were alone in the cottage...

If only Giles had had more faith in me, Willow thought mournfully...I could do something to stop this...

But she might yet be able to make use of her skills...If Amelia was up for a crash course in witchcraft...

And for her own part, Amelia had an idea of her own...

They still had a potential ally...In the heart of their enemies' lair...

If she could reach out to her...

Warren and Buffy were brought into the estate's main house where Sir Harold had, with considerable caution, arranged a "family reunion"...

Under the watchful guard of his heavily armed team...Vamps and humans...

A reunion which delighted Drusilla no end...

Sir Harold was intrigued by Dru's idea...And was interested in seeing a demonstration of Warren's talents...

Yes...To place her delightful mind within Ms. Summers-Walthrop's remarkable body...An excellent test case...

Especially with Ms. Summers-Walthrop's soul providing some slight restraint on Dru's killer nature...

Warren refused to offer any information until Spike was released to them...Which amused Sir Harold considerably...

However he did not wish to have the "cybergenius"' talents damaged by exposure to Dru...At least as long as he had hostages available...

BR calmly pointed out that the situation had taken a new dimension...She was perfectly able to throw the guards aside and reach Sir Harold and Dru...And their people would be able to kill Warren and Buffy before she could save them...Not to mention Spike...

However, she would not allow Dru to have her way...Even if Spike and the others must die...

With equal calmness Sir Harold noted that his people were armed with weapons capable of stopping even Ms. Summers-Walthrop...Though that must result in her destruction, a loss he would prefer to avoid...She was now...after all...replaceable...

Buffy eyed the group...Too many well-armed goons, even for BR, let alone her...

This branch of Wolfram-Hart took no chances...

Warren made a suggestion...If Sir Harold would consent to release Ms. Summers and Spike unharmed...He would make a neural recording of Drusilla...But not place it within BR's mind...

He would give her a new body...

Dru was interested...Still, not quite what she had in mind...

For Sir Harold it was a tantalizing prospect...The full details of the robot's construction as well as the neural transfer process...Without the need for a dreary session of torture and threats...Or even Dru's unique persuasive methods...Sadly, however, time would not allow for a new robot to be

constructed here ...And frankly he had his doubts as to how well Warren would keep his word...Even if they could transport them all to a new workplace...

No...they would have to make use of the tools at hand...And he required an immediate answer...

Warren agreed to make the neural recording...If Buffy and Spike were released...But he could not speak for BR's willingness to cooperate...

Sir Harold decided on sweet reason with Ms. Summers-Walthrop...He would release his hostages as requested, after the operation was over...But if she still refused, Drusilla would take matters into her own hands...Transforming Buffy and Warren...And she would be disabled, then

disassembled...So that, in the end, he would have all the information he required...Plus the eternal services of her sister and creator...

And of course dear "Dr." Walthrop...Whom he would release...Without his chip...Without her to help him...To doubtless begin again his career of murder and torment...

Naturally his friend Dr. Jones and several other experts would have to observe every step of the procedure...And Warren must provide detailed schematics of BR's brain and body construction...

"Please make your decision quickly my dear..." he told her... "After all the course I just outlined does have many agreeable features...And we have very little time left for negotiation..."

BR agreed...Provided Warren's release was included...

Sir Harold, a generous man in victory, accepted her terms...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXXIV

Dru was impatient waiting for the procedure to be set up and went down to check on her little boy...

And of course the prospect of keeping him informed was of considerable attraction as well...

Spike had begun to recover from the effects of his last drugging...And found himself suspended in mid-air, surrounded by guards...Armed with appropriate weapons, crossbows...

He called out to his fellow inmate...

"Still there, son?...What's the name, lad?..."

"Will Walthrop...Tell me, what the hell is going on here?..." young William called back...

The guards were profoundly uninterested...

"About what you figured, lad...I'd say we're hostages..." Spike replied...Rattling his chains a bit..

"I knew that already...Anything useful you can tell me?..."

Ah, a practical lad...Rather takes after old Phil...But then our family have always been the type to keep our heads...

"You might try an offer to some of our friends here..." Spike suggested... "But I think the others would open fire if enough wasn't offered to cover them all..."

"Sure...Anything they want..."

"More specifics, lad...These fellows deal in real figures..."

William mentioned a generous sum...Family must be doing very well these days, Spike noted...

Still no interest from the guards...A loyal crew, eh...Spike thought...

Young Will suggested that a guard or two might accompany him and the other fellow home, receive payment, and disappear to join his mates without any pursuit being possible...

Spike was please to see his namesake showed a considerable degree of common sense...

Sadly the guards seemed uninterested...

Drusilla entered the basement chamber...

Spike noted she still wore the pendant...Amazing thing that...You'd never sense her nature...

She headed for young Will's cell, stopped there for a moment, and then headed to Spike...

"Your Buffy is quite in love with you, William..." she noted... "Will she still love you when you've become a monster again?..."

"No..." Spike told her, frankly... "She'll stop me before I do any damage...And I will be glad of it..."

"I see..." she looked at him... Something strange there...He could see...Even in his current ridiculous position...Something almost pleading...

She stared at him a moment and went up the stairs...Staggering a bit as she neared the top...

Young Will was quiet...

"You alright there, lad?..." Spike called out to him... "She didn't hurt you?..."

"Fine..." Will called back...But there was something in his voice...

Dr. Jones and staff were fascinated by Warren's schematics...Not to mention his description of the transfer process...

Remarkable...And the device for the transfer was fairly simple to pull together...

They assured Sir Harold it could be done over the next few hours...

Dru returned...She seemed a little...

"Uncle?..." she questioned Sir Harold... "I don't feel well...dizzy...May I get something?..."

He noted that she had not in fact had a chance to eat in an while and arranged to have some blood packets brought...

Not wishing to have her off her stride...And yet not quite ready to have her eat their guests...

Buffy was chained up but watching Warren and his "colleagues" carefully...

Hopefully her "cybergenius" knew what he was doing in this...If Drusilla did get into BR's mind...Took control of her body...

She didn't want to think about the consequences...Much as her faith in her sister's

strength of soul was...She knew from experience...No one fights off a vampire

demon...Especially a neural copy of Dru's demon...

Not even a Buffy Rebecca...

Dru seemed to be feeling better after her feeding...And Sir Harold's little science team was ready...

But first he wanted to put proper restraints on Warren's "daughter"...If Dru became...well, "agitated" in BR's body...it might be a difficult thing to stop her...Even with BR's soul still in place...

BR allowed herself to be chained up...And looked at Warren, pleadingly...

He took her hand...All would be well...

And they brought Dru over...Who seemed a little nervous but was a surprisingly good patient...

For a psychotic killer...

The recording was to be simultaneously released into BR's brain... Allowing them to monitor the process in detail while performing it as quickly as possible...

Sir Harold urged his team on...But suggested vigilance in their monitoring...

"Well?..." Willow asked Amelia...

"I'm not sure if I can do this properly..." the Watcher sheepishly replied... "It's...rather advanced for me..."

"Believe me...You'll be fine...Just take it slow and I'll help..."

"But doesn't this require...A certain degree of talent?..."

Willow grinned...

"Well...this one is preety straight-forward...I hate to admit it, but it probably could be done by anyone..."

"A dangerous bit of knowledge..."

"Well, we try to make it as all dark and mysterious as possible..." she grinned again... "Kinda like the Watchers' Council..."

Amelia chuckled...

"Seriously...Do you think you're up to it?..." Willow asked... "You've already got the ball rolling in your department..."

Americans...Amelia sighed...Can't they just say what they mean?...

"Yes...I'm ready to try..." she told her...

About two hours into the procedure...

A fire broke out...Suddenly...As they so often do...In the basement dungeon...

The guards quickly lost their indifferent air, panicked and fled upstairs...

As smoke filled the basement, Spike called out to young Will and tried to struggle free...No good...

Suddenly his door was open...By his namesake...Who began unlocking what he could of the chains...

How?...Still it was more important to concentrate on...one, getting out...and two, repressing a powerful urge to kill his namesake by ripping his throat out...

Sir Harold was not amused to find his guards panicking over a little fire...Especially when it quickly turned out to be more smoke than fire...

He was even less amused when his guards reported that William the Bloody and his namesake were no longer in the basement...

Possibly the work of Ms. Rosenberg?...The one member of the group not yet accounted for...

"Gentlemen?...Is your work nearly complete?..." he demanded of his staff...

If so it was time to settle a few accounts...

"Uncle?..." Buffy Rebecca called out to him...As, almost in stereo, did Drusilla...

He went over to the two...And smiled at Warren...A true genius...And now his work would live on...

In the service of Wolfram-Hart...

But Dr. Jones was suddenly a bit puzzled...The robot's readings seemed correct but...

Dru's own EEG now was looking...Strange...

She was on them in a second...Just as Spike crashed through the outside window...

Sir Harold in fury ordered his staff to open fire on all of them...Including his fools of a scientific staff who blocked the way and who'd been so easily deceived...

Spike was uncertain...Dru?...Helping...

His descendant had told him that she had left the key for him...But...

She grinned at him...Didn't he know his own wife?...

She tore off Buffy's chains just as the guards opened fire...And headed for BR...

"Like old times..." Buffy grinned at Walthrop...As they dodged under the nearest table...

Who nodded but requested she keep her distance...Chip on the fritz, you know...

Dru had released BR who likewise joined in, tearing through the guards on the lowest level while Dru and Spike used their vampiral "lead tolerance" to disrupt the more heavily armed above...

Sir Harold, a fellow of vast experience and excellent judgment, knew when the jig was up and fled with his staff covering their fallback to the cars...

And made a strategic withdrawal...

Sadly, Dr. Jones and the other scientists were not so lucky...

Buffy looked at the grinning Drusilla...And her robotic sis who looked at her...

And then noticed she didn't see Warren...

He was hurt, caught in the crossfire...But thank goodness not badly...

Spike was doing his best to avoid looking at all the lovely blood and gore...

And to keep his distance from his friends...Including young Will who had joined them...

Dru managed to restrain her surviving minions from either violence or suicide...Requesting that they all take a well-deserved nap...For the next 24 hours...

Buffy watched her in shock...As did Spike...Dru?...BR?...

As Willow and Amelia entered the building, BR explained...At least what she could...

It wouldn't last long...Warren had surreptiously reversed the process... Dru's mind had been more or less anaesthetized and an impression of BR's placed there...While still letting an impression of Dru's mind to reach her to fool Sir Harold's team...But loaded into her good old supplemental

memory...Not her brain...From where it had already been deleted...Permanently...

Dru would be BR for a little while longer...Just enough to hopefully rescue as many of her "followers" as possible...

Then, it would be time to deal with the original...

But Spike wondered...What had happened before?...In the basement?...That was before the recording...

"Oh..." said Willow... "That was the real Dru...Your...niece made contact before she started my little smoke and mirrors fire spell in the basement..."

Willow patted Amelia's hand...

Her latest protege...And a very skilled channeler...

But Drusilla was not the infamous Drusilla for nothing...

Dru-BR called out to them...The demon was fighting her way back...

But before any of them could reach her, she attacked and knocking down Spike, grabbed him and ran for the window...

BR was still shaken...more by the recording than the fight...And wasn't able to reach her stride in time to catch them...

She headed out in pursuit but Dru reached a car left by Sir Harold's guards and shoving the unconscious Spike inside...Headed out...

They all ran out...Too late...

BR whirled back in at them and began looking for the first working car...

She was gone before they could reach her...

Buffy wanted to head out after her sis but did not want Warren left unattended...

She left with Willow after Amelia took charge of him...Grinning at her "stop-gap" guy...

Time for a promotion for old Warren...After she helped sis out...

And definitely time she spoke to him about Tara...And about herself...When things settled down...

The Tie That Binds...Part XXXV...Conclusion...

"Which way?..." Willow asked Buffy as they sped down after the fleeing Dru, Spike, and the trailing BR...

"I don't think Dru is heading anywhere but straight down the road, Will...But try the cell phone...Those numbers...One must reach BR's car..."

Willow began frantically dialing...She reached two cars containing Sir Harold's fleeing staff...The home office...Thanks, no message...Finally on the fourth try she got BR...

Still headed straight...Dru was making for the coast the fastest way possible...But with dawn on the way, she couldn't be planning to set sail...

Fly out perhaps?...Willow wondered...Or did she have something else in mind?...

Back at the Walthrop estate Amelia gave a truncated explanation of the bizarre kidnaping to her cousin young William...Who was intrigued to learn that his fellow cellmate had been a distant relative...long in America...

Warren was in considerable pain but recovering...And mostly concerned about the Buffies and his "son-in-law"...

Wasn't there anything they could do?...

Amelia thought she could try...

While she concentrated, a team from the Watchers' Council finally arrived...Fortunately they were prevented from shooting any of Dru's poor "followers" some of whom were still vaguely wandering the grounds...

And in their midst...Angel and Wesley...Who at Giles' request and by their own inclination had taken the first flight out...

Dru swung off the main road on to a side road where she halted just long enough to bind Spike up securely...She drove cautiously on back to the main road...BR had actually passed her...

She knew however escape was now impossible...Perhaps she'd always known...

But if she was to be forced back into Hell, she was not going alone...And it would be on her terms...

Leaving the Council team to care for the wounded and those in Dru's thrall, Angel, Wesley, and Amelia headed out to join the pursuit to the coast...Amelia still trying to reach human Dru...

Anything to slow Drusilla down...

Angel had a reasonable idea of what her intentions were...

She always liked to leave with a big splash...

Dru had slipped down another side road...Rather jolly this kind of chase...Like the things on the telly Spike used to watch...

BR met Buffy and Willow on the main road while Dru cut back ahead of them...Obviously she'd gone down a side road...

They got a call from Amelia en route...Who was receiving impressions from dear Dru...On the main road, rapidly approaching the coast...

BR was off before Buffy and Willow could put the phone down...

This was not polite, Dru told her counterpart...Never in all the years since her transformation had her "sister" deigned to speak with her...To come out and play...

Now...she wanted to interfere...And all for Buffy and her William...Well, it was her fault...She'd wanted "freedom", "release"...And now, if she'd be patient...In just a bit...She'd have her precious "freedom"...While her poor demon "sister" ...Who'd never asked for any of this...

Who'd only wanted survival...And a few jolly kills...

Spike was struggling against her bindings...Trying to speak through the gag...

She shook her head at him...They'd have all the time in the world to talk...In a few minutes...But things would never be the same...She knew the secret now...How his human soul had won out to redemption...It had always been obvious but she had had trouble accepting it...The chip had

helped, of course...But the truth was...

They both loved Buffy Summers...William Walthrop, human soul...And Spike, demon counterpart...And perhaps, Spike's love, so absolutely hopeless, was the more touching of the two...He, a demon, could never hope to have any part of her heart...But if he made no fight, let

Walthrop run the show...Gave up everything...He could stay in his chip-enclosed prison by his beloved's side...And watch...At least until Buffy released Walthrop...Or someone else did...

Even Drusilla was as moved as a vampire demon could be...She had never loved Spike or Walthrop in the normal sense of the word...She wasn't capable of it...But his desperate protectiveness, his affection...A mix of Spike and Walthrop, leavened by Walthrop's concern for the human Dru he sensed over the years...Was a part of her...

Now it was gone...Except for Walthrop's feeling for poor human Dru...

But...she couldn't bear the thought of returning to Hell...Alone...Even if Spike no longer felt for her...

Even Daddy Angelis would not fill the loneliness...If he would even be there and was not in some limbo, watching Angel, hoping for his opportunity...

And after all, she'd imprisoned Walthrop...If she now chose to release him...

To her surprise her counterpart was struggling for control...To stop or crash the car...

She focused and pushed poor Dru down a bit...

BR must be doing well over a hundred...Willow noted...They simply couldn't keep up...

Well, robot reflexes...

But she noticed nervously...Buffy was not exactly lagging...Doing over ninety...

Well, Slayer reflexes...

Hope they apply to driving...

[Suggested theme..."Dru and Spike By The Sea" (Once Upon a Time in the West)]

Dru veered onto a hill road to the cliff area overlooking the coast...Which led to a vast, grassy field...

The field Cordelia had seen...

A place Dru had taken from Spike's own memories...

BR's car appeared racing up behind...

Dru stopped, dragging Spike out...And let the car go back down the steep hill...Crashing onto BR's which was smashed back down the hill...

Then she dragged Spike along toward the cliff field...

Dawn was now very near...The first glimmers appearing in the clouds out to sea...

BR clambered out of the wrecked car...Fifteen minutes unconscious...God, 'Dad' and his need for accuracy...Of all times to be capable of being knocked out...

She raced up the hill road...She now was quite aware of what Dru had in mind...

And not yet used to immortality she had no intention of waiting through eternity for her husband's soul to return to her...Whatever she had to do to stop Dru...

If even Spike would twit her about that forever...

Human Dru was still struggling for control but her "sister" was too powerful and experienced...But her struggles, plus Spike's gave him a chance to break loose as they reached the field...

He ran back from her towards the cliffs' edge...He vaguely recognized the place...He'd come once with his Mum and the other chicks, one of their few, brief holidays away from dreary Brusset...A beautiful place...

Kind of Dru to seek it out for his grave...

She hurried after him...With a stake in hand...Just as she reached him, he broke his hands free and knocked the stake down...

Drusilla swung at Spike, knocking him back and down...She grabbed the stake and reared over him in triumph...The Vampire Vampire-Slayer...

It was time for her to take back her gift to William Walthrop...

An appropriate hymn was called for...She began humming her favorite...

"Blest Be The Tie That Binds..."

Play hymn

Buffy Rebecca crashed into her and holding her firmly in her grip, plunged over the cliff to the rocks below...Rocks and numerous scattered boards and other wooden trash...

The sun rose...Touching the clouds with a beautiful rosy light...

Walthrop ran to the cliff's edge and peered down to see BR's body on the rocks below...

There was no sign of Drusilla...

As he looked, he felt a warm mist sweeping over him...Just as he had when Buffy Rebecca's spirit had left Buffy just before her resurrection...

But it was not BR's spirit...

[Suggested theme...Song for Dru (The Maids of Arrochar)]

"Thank you...Mr. Walthrop...Thank you..." he heard faintly in his mind...

After all...she and Walthrop had never been properly introduced...

Good-bye, my dear Dru...Goodbye...Peace...

He stood lost...Looking at BR below...

Then he climbed slowly down to her...

Spike and Buffy Rebecca love theme

She did not move...He carried her back up to the field...And laid her gently down...

He considered the matter carefully...

With the chip's protection gone there was no reason to stay, he reflected...And good reason to guard against the imminent return of his demon...

He looked around...The grassy field Cordelia had seen in her vision...Well...

He'd done his bit...And had had enough...

Whatever or whoever might have been running the show...

William Walthrop would make his own decision now, thank you...

And his decision was as it always had been ever since BR had climbed out of her biotank to save him...To toddle along after the Missus...

Besides, if it should be that the Powers That Be were displeased with his performance, if they decided he'd lacked that certain pluck they'd hoped to see in him...And chose to weigh his soul down with more punishment, just as a little indicator that he'd not quite measured up...

He'd have an advocate...More than one really, he knew now...

His friends...Willow, Rupert, even Xander and Anya, even a certain LA type and his staff ...His family... mother-in-law, Joyce, his sisters-in-law Buffy and Dawn...Amelia...And the gentle Miss Drusilla...They'd all be there for him when the time came...Not even counting dear Mum, Philip,

Amelia...All of whom he now somehow knew must have been pulling for him...Even in his darkest moments...Striving to keep the spark of soul alive in him...

And...

One person who would batter down the Gates of Hell to reach him if she had to...

And so there was nothing to fear...

He looked at BR...And gently kissed her...No, there was no longer any need to wait...

He strolled into the field and looked around...It was a glorious spring dawn...Not a bad day to end...Not at all...

He held the ring in his hand for a moment...Then tossed it into the field...

Tomas Strathen, farmer, saw the distinguished young gentleman standing quietly in the field...And saw him collapse...

And saw a blonde streak of lightening flash by the spot...

"Dr." Walthrop had disappeared, apparently, judging by the shattered door hastily replaced, carried into the nearby cottage...

BR sighed as she looked at the blanket-covered badly burned "cybergenius"...Was he going to turn suicidal every time things got a little hairy?... If she hadn't regained consciousness for another moment...

"Spike...Didn't Warren manage to teach you anything about my systems?... What did you do...Feel my pulse and pronounce me dead?..."

That damned ring is going right back under my supervision...she thought...

Sir Harold received visitors in his London office...the Walthrops...And Ms. Summers...

With a special request...Really a demand...

For a reference to a first-rate neurologist...And the pleasure of his company in visiting the said doctor...

One look at Ms. Summers-Walthrop persuaded him to comply...

Dr. Sir Sidney Pegg, one of Britain's greatest neurosurgeons, was fascinated by his patient's "anti-seizure" chip...

The things they come up with in the States these days...

It was a relatively simple matter to reconnect its wiring into the brain...

Dr. Pegg was something of a romantic and cleared his schedule in order to perform the surgery as quickly as possible...

So that the Walthrops might have a chance to enjoy what part of their honeymoon time was left to them after his recovery...

And Sir Harold was only too happy to await the result of the operation with the American wife of his dear young friend, suffering from epilepsy, whose honeymoon had been disrupted by the failure of his unique anti-seizure device...

With a little persuasion from Ms. Summers-Walthrop, Sir Harold decided to retire from his firm and seek the solace of life in the English countryside...

There was no shortage of eager candidates to replace him...

Buffy had given Leto's other letter to Willow...

"My dearest Willow..." the letter began...

It warned her of the plans of Sir Harold and Wolfram-Hart and begged her to take care against it...

And as with Buffy's letter, apologized for his evil act...but not for his choice...

He hoped that he had managed to do her some service by his last effort and she would find the peace and happiness she deserved...And assumed that, with the Slayer's help he would already have found his peace by now...

Which would at last have freed them both...

Willow was shaken...

She had expected her fight for survival with Leto and Wolfram-Hart might take strange turns...

To find that he had been trying at the end to save her was not one of them...

Buffy, Wesley, and Angel stayed a week in London with the Walthrops and Willow...Courtesy of Ms. Walthrop-Hunt who had used information gleaned from those captured at the Walthrop estate to unmask the treacherous Mr. Pruit...And the grateful...if rather chastened Watchers'

Council...

Who dealt with Mr. Pruit themselves in their time-honored fashion...

Buffy spending most of her time looking after Warren at the hospital...Whose recovery was fairly rapid...Fueled by his deep desire to return home and see if W/S Bionetics, Inc was still in one piece...

Willow decided to fly home with Buffy and the gang...Give the honeymooners their chance to be alone at last...

Buffy left behind a last gift for sis and brother-in-law...

A baby shower card..

.

Now it would be up to the "cyberboys" to put their genius where their mouths were...

Basey and Giles reported all quiet, more or less, on the Sunnydale front...At least compared to normal Buffy times...

But some vamps were clearly getting restive...

And Basey had had a chance to confirm her cure...

Warren had made a nearly complete recovery and Buffy thought she might speak to him about "the future"...

Judging by the happiness with Tara had received her restored Willow there was nothing to worry about there...Unless he...

She took the direct approach...She liked him...But...Did he have feelings for Tara?...If so, did he know about?...

He could be a little clueless at times...An endearing trait, really...

Well...of course...He liked Ms. Maculay very much...And couldn't help noticing...As an outsider to the core gang himself...That she was a little isolated from the others at times...And of course they were drawn together by an interest in cybernetics...But...Well, obviously she and Willow...

Good, Buffy thought...Only natural...one lonely guy, male...Siding with lonely guy, female...

But he did have some plans of his own...

"I'll be leaving town...Just for a little while..." Warren told her...

Oh...Buffy blinked...Leaving?...

"Something with your company?..." she asked...But she had an idea of what he was trying to tell her...

"I'm just taking a little trip...to see...Katrina..."

Oh... Katrina, the fiancee...

"You and Angel...And Buffy Rebecca and Spike...have inspired me...I'd like to try...At least make the effort..." Warren looked at her...

Really...Buffy thought, blinking...Inspired, eh...

"You wouldn't settle for anything less than the love of your heart...The same feeling applies to me..." Warren smiled at her...

Dumped...Again...

"Sometimes...you have to make your happiness out of what you find available, you know..." Buffy noted...

Why did I say that?...she thought...That's not what I wanted to say...I didn't mean...

Her "stop-gap" guy had come to mean a little more than that to her, she suddenly realized...

"What I mean is...You can have some fantasy...some ideal but you find happiness with what's real...Not some illusion of what could be..."

Better...she thought...

"But you should try for the ideal...If there's any chance of it..." Warren replied, looking at Buffy...

She blinked at him again...Definitely showing potential...But...

"I wouldn't settle for anything less than someone I loved, Warren, that's true...But don't think that Angel or Riley are the beginning and end of my life..."

She knew however she had to be big about this...He was being sincere...

Besides, the Slayer doesn't concede that easily...Certainly not to some, as she remembered Katrina, fairly ordinary competitor...Besides the fiancee might have cut him out...Leaving the field to a certain Slayer...If she handled things right...

And she made her interest clear...If things didn't work out with old Katrina, when he returned...

She would like to get to know her brother-in-law's partner better...

A Slayer keeps her options open...

Before he left, Warren was happy to go over with her to her mother's gravesite...

She had a lot to tell Joyce...Not that she doubted Mom was aware of all that had gone on...But...It was comforting to talk to her as close by as possible...

She was going to make it...Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't work out with Warren...or Riley...or even Angel in some future existence...But she had finally learned what joy her work brought to the tormented...And how far from hate it truly was...

And she had been blessed with a whole new family...two sisters, a new brother...three sisters and two brothers if you counted Basey and Leroy...And she did...

Heck at the rate Basey and Giles were going she might even have to move Basey up to a kind of "spiritual step-Mom"...Well, nah...third sister was quite enough...

And if Warren wasn't destined for the exalted status of Slayer's boyfriend...Well, another brother wasn't so bad at that...

Not even mentioning...If all went well with BR and "Operation Motherhood"...

And the old gang...Who'd done so much more for her than she could ever hope to repay...

All ties that would bind her to and keep her safe in this world for as long as she could stay ...

[Suggested Leto's Theme (The godfather)]

And at one, rather neglected gravesite...

Of a well-known former politician...

Willow with Tara beside her...Planting flowers...


End file.
